


The Devil and the Dead: A Mystery Skulls AU

by Providentially_Demonic



Series: Demon Arthur AU [1]
Category: Mystery Skulls (Band), Mystery Skulls Animated
Genre: Alternate Universe, Based on a Tumblr Post, Blood and Gore, Demon Arthur, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-12
Updated: 2018-01-20
Packaged: 2018-09-17 01:30:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 11
Words: 38,051
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9298175
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Providentially_Demonic/pseuds/Providentially_Demonic
Summary: Based on ectoimp‘s absorbing AU sketches (Most of which can be foundhere!)At first all he knew was darkness— rage, pain and the ultimate sting of betrayal.  And then Lewis opened his eyes…





	1. Death Wore a Familiar Face

**Author's Note:**

> I’m giving credit and kudos to arthur-tristan-kingsmen(Tristan_ATK), phantoms-lair (Eternal_Phantom), answrs (answrs) and of course, the illustrious ectoimp for some of the discourse which guided the idea from vague AU to the story that does not want to stop running through my head. And for continually adding more adorable headcanons to make the story longer!
> 
> Comments are love!

 

At first all he knew was darkness— rage, pain and the ultimate sting of betrayal. The sight of his best friend’s face as he shoved him to his death; laughter reverberating around him as the wind whistled past his ears.

And then Lewis opened his eyes. He was still in the cave where he had— _died._ The first thing he saw was his own body, skewered on a bed of stalagmites. It was sickening and if he’d still had a stomach he’d have lost the contents of it. Then he saw what lay crumpled a foot away, a sharp stone spire having punched entirely through Arthur’s abdomen. Arthur’s face was turned toward his own body, face frozen in a grimace of agony and tear tracks dried on bloodless cheeks. One hand was still stretched out toward Lewis’s body, as if desperately reaching for him. There was a savage, torn wound near the shoulder of his other arm, bloody fingers still clutching at the stone that had killed him.

All the rage was gone as if a flame had been blown out. Sick terror filled the void left behind. _“Artie…?”_ His voice echoed and sounded strange, like it was out of tune, but he couldn’t care. He remembered Arthur shoving him off the ledge, but this…?

He stumbled to his feet (did he even have feet any more?) and to Arthur’s limp corpse. He reached for Arthur, finding he had hands solid enough to grasp. He lifted Arthur, the stalagmite coming free of the death wound with a horrible sucking sound that turned his non-existent stomach. He noticed the hand that fell limply away had a gangrenous tinge, and hooked claws where his nails should have been.

_**“— Reports of strange behaviour and possessions there…”**_ Vivi’s cheery voice filled his mind, and all too suddenly, he knew with sick certainty what had happened.

_“Nooo… Artie!”_ Lewis pulled Arthur’s body close, vision clouding with tears. **“Arthur!”**

Unbidden, the last sight of Arthur’s face flashed across his mind and he knew he was right. As he had fallen away, he’d seen half of Arthur’s face with a rictus of a grin, tinged sickly green and eye full of malicious glee. The other side of his face had been frozen in a pained cry that had no voice and tears had spilled from an amber eye full of anguish. “Oh, _nononononono… No! **Arthur!”**_ Grief filled his entire being. Too little, too late… The monster had stolen not only his life, but Arthur’s, and his last moments could only have been filled with the horror of watching his friend die, aided by his own hand.

The body in his arms twitched; seized, and with a massive bubbling gasp, spasmed upright in his arms. Dazed, pain-filled eyes, gold against dark green sclera, blinked foggily up at him. “Lew…” came out with a wet, burbling cough and a trail of bloody saliva than ran down Arthur’s chin. “Yo-you’rrre ‘liiiv-ve—”

Stunned, Lewis pulled him close again. _“Shh_ , don’t move, we-we’ll call an ambulance. You’ll be okay—”

Arthur wrenched free of his arms and scrambled unsteadily away, pained moans escaping with every movement. “N-no, g-get— **_aggghh_** — ‘way. It’ll h-hurt— hurt y-you. G-g-get ‘way, r-run… Ca-can’t s-stop it!” Arthur collapsed in a bloody heap, arms still struggling to pull him away, at the base of the stone that had killed him. “ _ **Gahh—**_ get away f-from it b-before it g-gets you too!”

Like a slow, seeping poison, the bitter thought that nothing could hurt him anymore bubbled like acid in his brain, but Lewis shook it off, hurrying to gather up a weakly struggling Arthur. “Shh-shhh— you can’t— can’t hurt me.”

Arthur spasmed in his grasp, arms feebly working to push him away. “Ge-get ‘way… don’ l-let it t-take you…” Another bubbling cough wracked him and then blood spilled from the corner of Arthur’s mouth. Those disturbing eyes rolled back in his head. Taloned fingers clawed the air for a brief moment and then Arthur went limp and deathly still.

“Arthur!” Panic filled him and he clutched Arthur tighter. “Arthur, _no!_ C’mon, you can’t die on me now!” He was shaking and faintly-glowing tears dripped onto Arthur’s pale face. “Artie! **NO!”** He rocked Arthur in his arms, a despairing litany of ‘no’s’ spilling from him.

_**~ssssssiiiiiilllleeeennnnccccssssssssss~~** _

The faint, gurgling sound came from Arthur’s slack lips and one eye cracked, bright acid-green on darker green.

Lewis rocked back on his heels, arms gone loose around Arthur, staring at that fresh, glittering slice of hell that held no trace of his friend.

_**~~pppiiiittttiiiffffffuuullllllllll mmmoooooorrrrttaaaaalllssssss~~**_ That loathsome green-on-green eye rolled to focus on him, the pupil contracting and widening erratically.   _ **~~tthhaaaattt ssssssuuucchhh aaaasssss yyooooouuuu ccoouuulldd hhuuurrtt mmeeeee— i wwiiilll EEEENNNNDDD yyooouuu!~~**_

Arthur’s chest heaved with another gasping breath, but Lewis felt no relief in it. Because what was staring back at him out of Arthur’s eye was not Arthur. It was the thing that had killed him.

Thick, bubbling laughter spilled from Arthur’s lips.  _ **~~Wwooonnn'tt ddiiiieee sssooo eeeaassssy! Sssssttuuuppiiidd fffooxxxxsss tthhooouuugghhtt iiitt ccooouulldd eeenndd mmeee! Ffoooooll! I hhaaavveee aaa bboooddyyy nnooowww!~~**_ Those clawed fingers twitched and reached for Lewis.

Even knowing he was dead and this thing could no longer harm him, Lewis flinched.

The claws stopped short, quivering in place. Those eyes widened and gold bled back into place. Arthur spasmed, a pained scream ripping from his throat. His heels drummed against the floor and his back arched. _“Nooo—!”_

The strange tone of the creature was gone, and all Lewis could do was cling to Arthur’s struggling body, trying to keep him from hurting himself worse. Blood still leaked from the massive puncture that should have _(had?)_ killed him and Lewis could see bloody organs moving in the hole. It terrified him that he could do nothing to help Arthur.

Another agonized scream shook bits of rock from the walls and Arthur writhed. Fresh tears welled in Lewis’s eyes as Arthur spasmed like he might tear himself apart from the inside-out. His teeth, sharper now than before, had fastened in his lower lip and fresh blood spilled down his chin. Arthur flopped like a stranded fish, another raw scream shattering the air. His arms curled around the gaping wound in his gut, claws digging fresh gouges in his sides, ripping his ruined shirt to pieces. His head snapped back so hard it hit Lewis’s sternum, gold on green eyes pouring tears down bloodless cheeks. Bruises had bloomed on Arthur’s forehead, stark against his too-pale skin. Lewis could only watch in mounting horror as sharp protrusions of something dark pushed their way through the bruised skin, streaked with blood. After another eternity of agonized struggling, Arthur sagged limply in his arms, residual shivers crawling over his green-tinged skin.

Teary eyes stared up at Lewis. “L-Lew—” his ruined voice croaked, “Y-you’re _ok-kay—”_

Lewis couldn’t bear to deny it and cradled Arthur close to his chest, turning himself slightly, to keep his ruined corpse out of Arthur’s view. “Yeah, buddy, I’m good. It’s you I’m worried about.”

He glanced gown at Arthur’s clawed arms wrapped around his abdomen. Arthur’s eyes weakly followed his and widened. _“H-huh—_ Didn’t realize I was b-bleeding—”

“Artie—” Lewis couldn’t stop himself from pulling Arthur into a tighter hug. “You— you’ll be okay. I promise, Y-you’ll be fine.”

Arthur rasped a painful sounding laugh. “Y-you’re still a l-lousy l-liar, Lewis. S-something’s wrong w-with me. I c-can f-feel it in me, like a w-worm in an apple, wriggling in m-my b-brain. I-I can hear it in my h-head. It’s evil a-and I dunno w-what it’ll make me d-do—” Arthur broke off in a wretched fit of coughing, shaking his entire body. He brought up a hand to cover his mouth, choking. He froze in mid-cough, staring wide-eyed at his pale green skin and the yellow talons that had replaced his fingernails. _“Wha—_ what’s it d-doing to me?” His rasping voice took on a panicky note and he shook his hand as if he could shake the wrongness out of it. _“W-what am I b-becoming?!”_

“Arthur!” Lewis caught Arthur’s flailing hand and stilled it. “It’s okay. You gonna be alright.”

Arthur struggled weakly but it was clear he barely had any strength left. “How will _this_ be alright?!”

Lewis’s heart broke and he hefted Arthur a little closer, tucking Arthur’s head against his shoulder. “It’ll be fine, it has to be…”

Arthur shivered against him, his breath warm against Lewis’s neck (Lewis didn’t want to think how it worked, considering his body was right over there, dead as the proverbial doornail.) “I-it’s in me and it’s c-changing me. H-how c-can it be _f-fine?”_ He started coughing again, His body shaking from the force of it. The bloody stumps of — were they horns? — scratched against Lewis’s shoulder. He buried his face in the front of Lewis’s shirt, clawed hands gripping at the arms around him as the spasm shook him.

When the coughing had subsided to ragged breathing, Lewis cupped Arthur’s tear-streaked cheek and forced him to meet his eyes. “Look at me. You are Arthur Kingsmen and my best friend in the world. You are Vivi’s best bud; the only one able to keep up with her in games— or when she’s had too much caffeine. You are the best mechanic I’ve ever known, better even than your uncle. You are a million things and _all_ of them are _stronger_ than that thing!”

Arthur swallowed harshly and managed a weak nod, sagging in Lewis’s arms. His eyes fluttered and it was clear he was utterly exhausted. “D-don’ l-leave me.”

“Never,” Lewis swore.

“Thank’ou…” Arthur’s head sagged, and his eyes closed.

Lewis had a moment of panic, but he could still feel Arthur’s chest moving with pained breaths. He tucked Arthur back against his shoulder, needing to feel him still living; still breathing. Arthur’s skin was too warm and clammy and his muscles jumped occasionally. It worried him, but seeing Arthur unconscious was better that seeing him writhing in pain as his body changed. And it was changing… the green tone of his skin was getting deeper and both hands had developed those hooked talons. There was something wrong with his feet too, because his shoes were tearing, something yellow peeking through the rents in the canvas. Lewis reached down with the hand not keeping Arthur balanced against his shoulder and pulled one ruined shoe off.

Arthur’s foot looked too long and his toes seemed to have developed an extra joint. The yellow was talons like those on his hands. His big toe looked wrong and Lewis realized it was shifting further back than it should have been. The arch of his foot seemed stretched and the heel too small. Arthur’s toes curled and stretched, joints popping and shifting and Lewis was insanely grateful that Arthur was not awake for this. It sounded painful. He took off the other shoe before it cramped Arthur’s shifting foot. He couldn’t see Arthur any more hurt.

Arthur shuddered, a moan spilling from his lips. His back arched and he unconsciously dug claws into Lewis’s arms. It almost hurt, but Lewis reminded himself that nothing could hurt him… short of an exorcism. He stroked Arthur’s hair, mumbling soothingly to his friend.

Arthur settled a little and Lewis kept up his quiet mantra, switching between english and spanish endearments and encouragements. The flow of words seemed to help, a least a bit, the pain in Arthur’s face easing between spasms.

Lewis watched with horrified wonder as the wound that had ripped Arthur’s abdomen apart shifted, muscles and organs moving in ways that made a sick shudder ripple through Lewis. He really didn’t want to see those parts of his friend, bloody and glistening in the dim light, moving and pulsing. Arthur’s shirt was already ruined, so he ripped it apart to hide the gory, twitching wound from sight. He didn’t think he could throw up without a stomach, but with the nausea rippling through his entire being, it _wasn’t_ a theory he wanted to test. He was pretty sure he also had no interest in seeing what a ghost threw up.

In ripping the shirt, he noticed strange, knobby protrusions around Arthur’s shoulder-blades, and carefully turned Arthur to get a closer look at one of them. It almost looked like a tiny hand and he prodded it carefully with one finger. Thin, long extensions wrapped around his fingertip, a paper-thin, translucent membrane between them and he realized with a jolt what it was. A almost bat-like wing— in perfect miniature, slowly growing from Arthur’s back. Carefully, he pulled his finger away, watching in sick fascination as the tiny wing flexed and folded.

He realized he’d stopped talking when Arthur mumbled in pain, face creasing in distressed anger. Lewis had to lean close to hear his words. _“…no… no… c-can’t l-let you… no… not hurting any-anyone… won’ let you…”_

Lewis realized Arthur was struggling against the thing in his mind and he pulled Arthur as close as he could, murmuring into his ear. “That’s it, Artie. Fight. You are stronger than that monster. You _can_ beat it.”

He continued whispering encouragement until Arthur relaxed again, some of the lines on his face easing. But in spite of everything, his body continued its slow reshaping.

Lewis could only hope what emerged from the other side was still his friend and not the monster that had killed him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ookaaaay- Apparently AO3 does NOT like fancy text formatting. It ate half the chapter when I copy-pasted the formatted text.
> 
> Art for this chapter was done by the talented [ectoimp](http://ectoimp.tumblr.com/) and belongs solely to them. Since Photobucket is being a d*ck, you can see the art [here.](http://ecto-rp.tumblr.com/post/155620549701/obviously-blood-and-gore-warning-scene-from) It's a bit gory so fair warning.


	2. Fleeting Time

Lewis wasn’t sure how long it had been.

His watch— he’d avoided looking at his body— _much_ — but even from here, he’d seen the giant crack across the face of the digital display in the little pink will o’wisp lights that were all around him. He didn’t know how he created them, but they answered to his wishes and were a comfort as long as he kept them from drifting too far… over there.

When after what seemed like hours, Arthur had settled into an uneasy, restless slumber, he’d dared… studiously not looking at his own face, or at the bloody rocks… to search for his cell phone. Unfortunately, it too had gone the way of his watch.

Arthur shivered and moaned softly and Lewis could only look at the broken thing in his hand. Arthur needed help, but who could he even call? He wanted Vivi’s comforting presence with a passion, but she… she was probably better off, far from them for the moment. He was… And Arthur was…

Arthur coughed and curled up into a tight ball, his small wings fluttering and stretching as if they were reaching for something, before he subsided into pained slumber. Arthur was still at war in mind and body. He didn’t dare have Vivi near— He couldn’t be hurt, but she could be. But once Arthur was himself again (he didn’t _dare_ think otherwise) maybe they could find a way to see Vivi again.

The thought of her sent a warm feeling through him and something caught his eye, glowing softly at the base of one of the bloody spires. Cautiously, he bent and picked it up. It was his locket, the one Vivi had given him. It glowed lambently gold and pulsed like a heartbeat, and just holding it in his hands made him feel— not better— but more solid, more sure.

He cradled it close and returned to Arthur’s side, resolutely looking anywhere but the other side of the cave. When Arthur was… _better,_ he’d move them away from the sight. Arthur shouldn’t— shouldn’t see this when… when— not if; _never if—_ Arthur was back in his right mind.

He sat back down next to Arthur’s shaking form, pulling him back into his lap and stroking his hair soothingly. “Shhhh, _amigo_. I’m here. You’ll be okay.” He had to be. Lewis didn’t dare believe anything else.

He glanced regretfully at Arthur’s cell phone, completely ruined by Arthur’s blood, wishing briefly for a little reassurance of his own. He could reassure Arthur, but who was here to assure him that things would be okay?

“B-big g-guy…” Arthur’s voice was raspy and broken. He’d spent so much time screaming at the pain of his transformation, Lewis had to wonder if it was ruined permanently.

Lewis stroked Arthur’s hair back and looked into those tired eyes, aching for the pain he saw lurking there. “Here, buddy,” he whispered. “Always here.”

Arthur had been drifting in and out of consciousness, subject to fevered bouts of delirium even when awake, as he struggled with the thing inside his mind. Most of the time when he woke, he did not remember much, if anything, past the fatal fall. He spent most of the time that he was lucid so very grateful that Lewis was _‘okay.’_ Lewis couldn’t tell him anything else, not when Arthur’s mental state was so very fragile, caught in an endless battle with the invading entity.

This time, Arthur seemed a little less confused, merely resting against Lewis. He leaned his head into Lewis’s stroking hand, eyes drifting shut. “H-had a n-night— nightmare,” He mumbled tiredly.

Lewis winced. Most of Arthur’s ‘nightmares’ were simply repeats of the moment on the cliff and would degenerate into Arthur crying wretched sobs until unconsciousness dragged him down again.

“Mmm,” Arthur assented sleepily. He didn’t seem to be in agony this time and for that Lewis was glad. He was painfully grateful most of the changes to Arthur’s body happened while he was unconscious. “W-was run-running from a r-really c-cranky ghost. K-kept chasing m-me, s-sayin’ I k-killed it. W-was scary.”

That was a new one, and a painful reminder of Lewis’s first remembered moment. “You’re good,” he said softly, tucking Arthur’s head against his shoulder and stroking his blond hair, taking care to avoid the growing horns that now curved back over Arthur’s skull. “You’re safe with me.”

“Know,” Arthur muttered. “A-always s-safe with y-you. Just t-tired an’ s-sore.” He shifted a little, the slender tail that had started growing from the base of his spine lashing restlessly against Lewis’s leg.

As much as he wanted Arthur awake and talking to him, Lewis knew it was only a matter of time before the transformation pains kicked in and he really didn’t want to see Arthur suffering through that fully cognizant of what was happening to his body. “Then rest,” he breathed softly. “I’ll watch over you, chase the nightmares away.”

Arthur huffed a soft, pained laugh. “No-not P-Paprika, don’ need y-you t-to chase t-the b-bogeyman away f’r me…”

Lewis smoothed a hand down his back, between the growing wings— now slightly larger than Lewis’s hands, feeling the heat Arthur radiated. He was feverish then, the fever spiking just before another agonizing spurt of transformation. He’d gotten far too used to the pattern in the last… however long it had been. “Fine, fine,” he soothed. “I’ll sing you to sleep if you don’t settle down and get some rest, bud.”

Arthur snuffled another weak laugh, but lapsed back into slumber. Shortly after, a shudder rolled down his spine and he keened softly between clenched teeth. His growing tail wrapped around Lewis’s ankle like a clinging vine, and his small wings flexed and fluttered. All Lewis could do was try to comfort him through the worst of it.

The savage tear on his left shoulder had healed at least, leaving only a scar, slightly paler green that the color that had now overtaken most of Arthur’s skin. The gaping hole in his gut was still knitting itself together, and the sight of it still turned Lewis’s stomach, because every time he saw it, all he could remember was seeing Arthur impaled on that spike, so he did his best to keep it covered with the ragged ruin of Arthur’s shirt.

Arthur curled into his lap, legs drawn up and over-long toes curled.

It hurt that he could do nothing but try to coax Arthur through the worst of it. He whispered reassurances when Arthur mumbled denials at the creature in his head and held him as carefully as he could. It was something of a relief when even in the worst of his pain, Arthur clung to him too. He stroked Arthur’s flexing back, hoping this spasm would be over soon.

His forearm brushed over one of the fluttering wings and it snapped shut around his arm like a bear-trap, thin fingers and membranes curling around his arm in a fairly strong grip for something that looked so fragile. He tried to pull away gently, ever wary of hurting Arthur’s changing body, but it clung like a limpet. Arthur whined and his face scrunched up in distress.

Lewis stilled, worried he had done something to damage Arthur, but as soon as he stopped pulling away, Arthur settled, his breathing still harsh and pained, but no longer underscored with whines. The thin tail around his ankle flexed, wrapping itself more snugly around him, as the wing gripped his arm tightly.

It was something of an epiphany for Lewis. Even though his body was transforming and there was still the creature in his mind, even these new parts of Arthur were just _that_ — Arthur. Arthur, clinging to him in fear and pain… not the monster. The thing that had killed him would never cling like this. It gave him hope that Arthur was winning the struggle. He turned his wrist just enough to run his fingers along the thin, warm membrane in a soothing motion. The wing flexed around him and Arthur murmured softly where his face was pressed into Lewis’s chest. It seemed a much shorter time before Arthur had lapsed back into something more like normal sleep, still tucked against Lewis, but no longer hanging onto him desperately with every limb.

With Arthur somewhat settled, Lewis’s thoughts drifted back to Arthur’s comment about Paprika. God, he missed his family, almost as much as he missed Vivi. He wanted Mama’s comforting arms and the smell of spice that always seemed to cling to her; he wanted Papa’s soft voice and gentle hands and most of all he wanted his little sisters. The three of them were his comfort and his joy. He remembered Mama and Papa bringing Paprika home from the hospital, and how her tiny fingers had clung to one of his, and she had never seemed to let go.. Belle and her constant collection of scrapes and bruises for him to bandage, Cayenne, the prankster, who kept him and everyone around him on their toes. His head bent over Arthur and more faintly glowing tears dripped onto Arthur’s hair.

A soft coo and something touched his cheek.

Startled, Lewis nearly unseated his sleeping friend, head jerking around to stare wide eyed at the— _ghost?_ — hanging by his shoulder and burbling softly at him. It was pink with bright yellow eyes and a golden heart on what might have been a torso. A noise from the other side made him whip his head around that way. There was a second one poking Arthur’s bloody phone curiously with tiny little nubs of arms. _What the—?_

A third one of the little things was curiously prodding Arthur’s tail and Lewis instinctively curled himself around Arthur to protect him from whatever these things were. They seemed almost as startled by his reaction and swarmed around his head, trilling reassurances at him. How he knew they were reassurances, he didn’t know.

He stared at the nearest one. It stared back with equal curiosity. After a long moment of the silent stare down, it booped his nose with one nubby arm and darted away, hiding among the rocks. He swore he heard it giggling. It was so very like what his middle sister would do that it left him speechless.

One of them, still watching Lewis, went back to Arthur and began to stroke his hair with one tiny arm. It cooed softly at Arthur, though it’s attention seemed entirely on Lewis, like it was saying _‘see, we don’t mean him any harm.’_

A barely-there weight settled on his shoulder and Lewis looked up at the third of the little pink spectres. It hummed softly and he got the sense that it was trying to comfort him. Cautiously, he lifted a hand to it and smoothed his fingers along the top of its head. It trilled and he felt a sense of delight from it.

The one who had been playing among the pillars returned and cooing, patted the front of Lewis’s vest where he had hidden his locket. The little ghostie vanished and Lewis felt a sense of warmth around his locket and a brief spike of understanding. They… the little ghosts were manifestations of his power, much like the floating wisps of light. He’d— he had wanted his sisters for the comfort that they always had been to him, so they had taken on his sister’s personalities as seen through the filter of his memory.

The one on his shoulder patted his ear. It wasn’t the same as feeling Paprika’s little hand there, but it did offer some bit of comfort. Lewis closed his eyes, leaning his head into the little spirit-creature. “Thank you.”

It burbled a happy reply.

*~*~*~*~*~*

Lewis could only guess at the passage of time by Arthur’s transformation. He didn’t know how long it had been, though he guessed at the very least a few days. Those tiny wings were now large enough to cover Arthur’s back entirely and the tail was long enough to wrap around Lewis’s waist, which it did frequently when Arthur was in the throes of pain. There was a tuft of hair at the end, the exact color of Arthur’s hair, and one of his little minion spirits had developed a cat-like tendency to bat at it whenever it twitched while Arthur slept. It would not when Arthur was hurting, and all three of them joined him in trying to soothe Arthur through the worst of the bouts.

Lewis had finally chanced a wary peek at the hideous wound in Arthur’s abdomen, relieved to see that, though there was a gnarled scar there, the flesh had sealed over the organs and muscles. When he wasn’t suffering from another bout of his body transforming itself a little more, Arthur seemed in less pain, so Lewis guessed most of his injuries were repaired by whatever was reshaping his body.

That decided him. Especially the last time he had had one of his brief lucid moments, Arthur had complained weakly of something smelling terrible. Lewis didn’t have to guess hard at what that was. The next time Arthur was deeply unconscious, after the breadth of his wingspan had increased by at least a foot or more, Lewis carefully lifted him into his arms, and carried him back up the path Vivi must have taken. Carefully _**not**_ thinking about his last memory of her blue eyes wide in horror, her pale cheeks spattered with blood.

Arthur stirred sleepily when Lewis set him back down at the bifurcation of the tunnels, but one of Lewis’s little spirits cooed and stroked his hair until he settled. Daring to leave Arthur for a moment. Lewis ventured toward the entrance of the cave… which wasn’t much of an entrance anymore. An absolutely huge rock sealed the way they had come in. Lewis pressed a hand to it. What had happened?

There was no sign of Vivi or Mystery in the cave, so they must have gotten out before this had happened, but why hadn’t she come back? Vivi would have led the police to here, right? He remembered wishing she had not seen his death, but she would have come back for Arthur, _right?_


	3. Finding Your Feet

Lewis couldn’t sleep any more and he didn’t want to… Nightmares were the least of his worries, but he couldn’t erase the worried thought that something could happen to Arthur if he were to sleep. What if he needed to be awake to coax Arthur through another battle with the monster in his mind? What if Arthur, in his delirious state, managed to wander away and…? Lewis didn’t want to think of the upward leading path only a few feet from where they now sat.

But he could fall into a trance-like state, where he wasn’t thinking, only drifting. It was like meditation in a way. He would make sure Arthur was secure in his lap and just let himself not think for a while. It kept him from fretting too badly about Arthur, about Vivi, and why she had not come back to look for them.

He was in one such moment of quiet non-thinking, when Arthur stirred in his lap and sat up with a groan. Lewis snapped back to full attention to find Arthur staring into his eyes, his own gold-on-green eyes full of remorse, tears beading on his lashes. “Oh, god, it _wasn’t_ a n-nightmare.” Arthur’s breath hitched and he flung himself at Lewis, arms wrapping around his waist and wings enveloping them both. Lewis felt Arthur’s tail snake around his leg, but he was far more concerned with Arthur, who was crying into his shoulder, great gasping breaths that shook his skinny frame.

“Arthur…?” Lewis was getting concerned. Arthur had had brief moments of lucidity before, but this seemed different. Arthur was shaking hard and clinging to Lewis as if he might never let go. _“Arthur,_ talk to me.”

But Arthur was crying too hard to answer. He could barely get in breaths between gut-wrenching sobs. His wings, wrapped tight around Lewis, were trembling so badly the membranes rattled.

Lewis caught Arthur’s chin and gently forced his head up to meet his eyes. “Arthur, _mi amigo_ , you have to talk to me, how can I help you if you won’t tell me what’s wrong?”

Arthur’s breath caught in his throat and he choked, **_“Everything!”_** With another sob, he pulled his head from Lewis’s hand and buried it against his shoulder again.

Stunned, Lewis could only cradle Arthur’s shaking form. He didn’t know what was wrong, and could only hold Arthur until he wept himself out. At last his sobs tapered to gasping breaths and sniffles. He was still shivering and his wings and tail had not relaxed their grip on Lewis. Lewis hummed softly, hoping to calm Arthur. His little spirits gathered close and sang softly, wordlessly, along with his tune.

It didn’t seem to be working and more than worried now, Lewis stroked a hand along Arthur’s spine. “Please, my friend, talk to me. You are scaring me.”

Arthur barked a broken laugh that had nothing of humor in it. “I’m scaring you… that’s rich… aren’t you supposed to be the scary one?” His voice cracked.

Lewis tried to get Arthur to face him again, but Arthur just clung with every bit of strength in his wiry frame. “Arthur… please. I can’t help if you won’t—”

Arthur’s voice cut across his like the crack of a whip. _“How_ can you help?! You’re _fucking_ dead! The thing in my goddamned head killed you!”

Startled, Lewis tried to draw back, but Arthur’s wings only clung harder. _How?_ In his lucid moments, Arthur had been so glad to know he was okay, that he was alive… How had Arthur known now that he… was _not?_

 _“Wha—?”_ he managed inelegantly.

Arthur’s breath hitched again, perilously close to an angry sob. “Don’t tell me you didn’t even…? No, you had to’ve.”

Lewis sighed and carded his hand through Arthur’s shock of blond hair. “Know that I am— dead? Yes, I know. But for a time, you didn’t seem to know. You were… _ill,_ and mostly delirious. It gave you comfort to believe it and I… I didn’t want to see you afraid anymore… not of me, now that I am something you have always feared.”

Arthur was crying again, but quietly, not the great wrenching sobs of earlier. “H-how could I e-ever be afraid of y-you?” Arthur heaved a quavering breath and Lewis looked down to see him staring at his own green, clawed hand. “I’m the m-monster to be afraid of here— H-how can you even for-forgive me?” Arthur’s question broke into a pained wail and he shuddered, wings rustling and tail tightening around Lewis’s thigh

With a pang, Lewis remembered his burning rage at Arthur, when he had first— awoken; _was that even the right word?_ — into his strange new existence. But Arthur’s mortal struggle with the monster in his mind was enough to quell any anger he might have felt.

He caught Arthur’s chin and made him lift his gaze to meet Lewis’s eyes. Lewis stared deep into the watery gold eyes, searching for any trace of the monster that had spoken through Arthur’s mouth before. All he found was Arthur, full of remorse and pain, needing absolution for something that was not his fault.

“Because… because there is _nothing_ to forgive. It was not your fault.” Lewis said earnestly.

Arthur’s breath hitched. “How can you s-say that?” His voice broke and he tried to look away, raising a clawed hand. “Look at me, j-just _look.”_

Lewis would not let him avert his gaze. “I am looking. And all I see is my friend.”

Arthur made a small, despairing sound. “How? How can you stand to see _this…_ the thing that _ki—_ p-pushed you?”

“Because I have seen you fighting it, begging me to get away from it, always trying to protect me… how could I doubt that?” Lewis told him gently, willing Arthur to believe him.

Arthur shook his head, breath hissing through his teeth, “I-I can’t— I didn’t— I don’t think—”

Arthur seemed to be struggling with his memories and thoughts. “How much do you remember of what happened?” Lewis asked quietly.

Arthur shuddered. “I remember the— the cliff. I said… I said…” Arthur’s brows drew down

“You said, _‘I don’t like this place. Lewis, get away from the edge. Please.’_ But I was trying to see the source of the strange green glow, and I didn’t listen when I should have.” Lewis thought bitterly that if he had just listened, they all might have come out of this alive.

Arthur’s breaths came faster and he clutched his left wrist so hard his claws bit into it. He seemed oblivious to the pain or the trickles of blood seeping from the wounds. “My arm… it went d-dead, I could— couldn’t feel it… there was a v-voice; strange… w-whispering evil, r-repugnant things in m-my head. A-a-a-and—” Arthur’s words broke off in a wordless wail of pain and denial.

Lewis tried to tighten his hold on Arthur, but Arthur struggled free, uncoordinated wings flapping wildly. He fell to his hands and knees and retched, tears streaming down his face. Lewis hurried to kneel next to him and help him balance on increasingly shaking limbs. Arthur sobbed and heaved again, though like the first time, nothing came up. He looked up at Lewis pitifully and the ghost could see the memory of his death in Arthur’s haunted, hollow eyes.

When the spasm had passed, Lewis gathered Arthur close again, one arm behind his shoulders to hold him up against his shoulder. Arthur didn’t fight him, lying still across Lewis’s lap, wings sagging limply, crumpled on the rocky floor and tail lying in a loose coil. His face was stained with fresh tears that leaked from his tightly closed eyes. And his hitching breaths spoke of a new bout of tears held off by sheer will.

Lewis rubbed a thumb over one wet cheek, glad when Arthur still instinctively leaned into his touch. Arthur slowly opened his eyes and looked over the length of his body, the taloned, over-long toes curling slowly as he stared at them.

“Arthur,” Lewis called Arthur’s attention back to him. “Do you still… can you still hear the voice?” He’d witnessed Arthur’s fight with the invading creature over and over while his body had reshaped itself.

Arthur blinked back into focus, though his gaze was still distant and hollow. Lewis had no doubt of what he was reliving. “— N-no _oo…”_ he said at last, hesitantly. “It’s not gone, I d-don’t think, b-but I don’t hear i-it anymore. It’s quiet, like it’s been pushed to the back of my mind. It—” He shook his head. “I can’t trust t-that I’ve won, but it’s not… not…” he fought to find words. “It’s like a c-conversation in another room,” he said at last, impatiently. “I know it’s t-there, but it’s not r-right there. I can’t t-tell if it’s _me_ angry or _it_ angry, but there’s this r-rage b-bubbling in the b-back of my skull. But… It’s n-not whispering in my head anymore.”

Lewis could have breathed a huge sigh of relief if he still had lungs. He’d harbored a fear that the creature might still take over Arthur, like it had that horrible moment at the bottom of the cave. But if Arthur had fought it back to the point that it could no longer influence him…

“Maybe Vivi would be able to help you more,” Lewis hazarded. He wasn’t sure how receptive Arthur would be to seeing Vivi in this… condition. “If we could find a way to contact her, she or Mystery might know something…”

Arthur had opened his mouth to say something, but froze, eyes wide and his green skin paling.

“Arthur? Arthur, _what is it?”_

Arthur’s hand twitched, bloodied claws coming up to grasp at his shoulder, where the pale scar still twisted his skin. “M-Mystery…” his voice shook. “He-he changed… there on the cliff, a-after… He was h-huge and tee— t-t-t-teeth… He c-came f-f-for me…” Arthur’s breath caught, and his claws dug into his shoulder. “H-h-he… th-the teeth…” He was close to hyperventilating. “I-I think he s-s-saw… thought I _w-w-would—”_

Lewis caught his hand and prised it free before Arthur could do the same damage that he’d done to his wrist. Arthur was shaking, his eyes staring into the distance. “H-he… he grab-grabbed my arm… I-I t-t-think because th-that’s where i-it s-started, t-the p-possession. I h-hope. But the-the t-thing in my h-head, it p-pulled away, I lost m-my f-f-footing— and… and…” Arthur looked sick again. “I…oh god, I— I f-fell—”

“Shhh…” Lewis soothed. His little spirits crooned and crowded close to Arthur, chirruping reassurances at the distraught man. Arthur looked startled but not frightened. It was hard to be scared of something that acted like adoring cats, Lewis figured. “It’s over. You’re okay now.”

Arthur sniffled, hiccupped, and looked down at the tail that had even now crept to wrap around Lewis’s ankle. “You call _this_ okay?” Very tentatively, he reached out to one of the tiny pink spirits and patted the top of its head. It trilled and leaned into his hand.

“I do, because you are still here.” Lewis told him earnestly. “You’re still you, still my best friend, still alive… He leaned his head until his cheek rested atop Arthur’s, near one of his curved horns. “It doesn’t matter what that thing did to your body, so long as you are still here.”

“Y-you’re still a sap, big guy…” Arthur sniffled again and offered a tiny smile. It was watery and uncertain, but it was a real smile and reassured Lewis more than he could say. “I guess I should be grateful I’m still me. I-I haven’t gone crazy, right? You are here and I’m not just bonkers and talking to myself, right?”

Lewis smiled. “Nah. To quote the cheshire cat; we’re all mad here.” He tapped a finger on Arthur’s nose, causing him to snort something that might have been a weak laugh.

“Ah, fuck it. Might as well just go with it. Crazy or not, we’re still here.” Arthur scrubbed at the tear stains on his cheeks with the heel of his hand, carefully keeping his claws curled. He snorted again and looked at them with a bemused expression. “I need to trim these meathooks before I put my own eye out.” His attention shifted down to his feet, the elongated toes stretching and curling far more flexibly than they had before. “How the hell am I supposed to walk on those? I have clown feet with claws!” He lifted one foot to stare unhappily at it.

Lewis lifted his hand to support the foot, studying it with a frown. “Not clown feet. Look at the way the toes are arranged, spread out like this.” He pressed his thumb into the ball of Arthur’s strangely shaped foot, watching the toes curl inward toward the pressure. “It’s a digitigrade foot, like a dinosaur.” He smoothed his thumb over the ball, watching the toes relax.

“D-dude, stop tickling me!” Arthur was trying hard not to kick, Lewis could tell. He tightened his grip. Arthur couldn’t hurt him, but he didn’t want him hurting himself either.

“Sorry.” He apologized.

“Don’t be,” Arthur pushed himself into a better sitting position in Lewis’s lap “What’s that mean, anyway?”

Lewis bent Arthur’s foot. Like he’d thought, the ankle was a lot more flexible than it used to be, allowing him to bend Arthur’s elongated foot almost all the way back towards his shin. “Means you won’t be standing they way you’re used to, instead it’ll be like you’re on your tiptoes all the time. Digitigrade means something that walks on its toes instead of flat-footed. Dogs, cats, some birds, and yeah, with the claws, your foot reminds me of a dinosaur.”

Arthur regarded his foot with a flat, distinctly unamused expression. “I always sucked at walking on my toes. And I don’t think they make high heels in my size.”

The thought of Arthur’s taloned feet in strappy high heels made Lewis stifle a laugh. “Sorry, sorry,” he said with a wave when that flat stare slid his way.

Arthur grunted and tried to push himself up, yelping when he planted his clawed hand on one drooping wingtip. “Okay, this is going to suck.”

Lewis floated himself off the floor, a trick he’d learned while Arthur was still thrashing with delirium and pain. He’d been terrified Arthur would hurt himself when he struggled during his body’s slow reshaping of itself, and had found himself hovering a foot off the cavern floor with Arthur in his lap, safely away from the jagged rocks of the cave.

This time, as Arthur was awake, he made a startled sound and clung hard to Lewis’s neck. “O-okay, whoa, _that_ is going to take some getting used to.”

Lewis just chuckled and carefully helped Arthur to untangle himself and set him on his clawed feet. Arthur flailed, wings flapping, and went down on his ass.

“Okay, that didn’t work so well,” Lewis remarked, earning himself a glare.

“Ya think?” Arthur scowled up at him. “Help me up.”

Lewis pulled him upright again, holding onto Arthur’s hands this time.

Arthur wobbled wildly, _“W-whoa—”_ His wings went out behind him, mobile fingers curling under and acting like a tripod. His tail had also instinctively braced against the floor for more support. He listed back and forth, unsteady as a newborn colt on his splayed feet. He clung to Lewis’s hands with all his strength. “Okay, this is gonna _— woah—_ take a while!”

“You’ll get the hang of it,” Lewis promised, holding him steady. One of his little ghosts darted in and tucked itself under Arthur’s shaking arm, cooing. Arthur look down at it, distracted. “What’s with the pink marshmallows?”

Lewis noticed his balance improved as he stopped focusing so hard on coordinating six limbs and a prehensile tail. “They’re mine, I guess.” He shrugged. “I haven’t got a clue how they came to be, but they… well, I needed some company, I guess, while you were… _ill_ — and they came to me. They’re a part of me, though I really have zero idea how that works.”

“Huh,” Arthur looked down at the one tucked under his arm.  “So you’re like their dad or something?”

Lewis chuckled. “I think the _‘or something’_ would be more accurate in this case.”

Arthur got a sly look on his face. “I guess that’s okay, then. Otherwise I’d have to accuse you of being a real deadbeat dad.”

Lewis was tempted to drop Arthur on his ass again. “Not funny.”

Arthur opened his mouth to say something else and Lewis shot him down with a frown. “One more pun and I will let go.”

Arthur clung harder to Lewis’s hands. “Don’t you _dare!”_

“Then keep a lid on your punning…”

Arthur glared down at his feet and wobbled again, nearly tipping forward. Lewis steadied him. “I’m never going to get the hang of this.”

“You will.” Lewis assured him, helping  him get his feet back under him. “I’ll always be right here to help.”

“You’re still a sap,” Arthur accused.

“But you still love me.”

“I’d love you better if you could teach me how to walk like this.”

“Toe-tally.” Lewis smirked.

 _“Dammit,_ Lewis!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **A/N:** _if you look through the demon!au/demon!Arthur tags on ecto-rp‘s blog, you can find two of the pieces of artwork that inspired scenes in this chapter. One, of course, is Lewis trying to help poor Arthur to walk, the other is the scene with Arthur lying in Lewis’s lap. The sketchiness of the drawing easily lends itself to imagining the tear tracks on poor shaken Artie’s face and the scene wrote itself around that._


	4. A Way Out of Hell

It took a while, but Arthur had gotten better at walking, though the heavy weight of his wings tended to overbalance him sometimes. He still clung to Lewis when there was not a wall or stalagmite handy and had ventured with Lewis to the mouth of the cave, getting his first look at the boulder that had sealed the cave. He ran clawed fingertips across the surface and yanked his hand back with a look of shock, shaking it as if fling something off his fingers. Lewis wasn’t fast enough to catch him before he went down on his rump.

“Arthur? What happened?” Lewis asked worriedly, hovering over him.

Arthur didn’t bother to attempt getting to his feet again, instead moving on hands and knees back to the stone that blocked the way. He reached out for it again with a look like he expected it to burn his fingers. Cautiously, he tapped it with a claw, eliciting a ‘tink’ sound. “It— it shocked me. Like a static shock but way stronger.” Slowly he placed his palm against the stone, only to yank it back with a hiss. _“Oww!”_

 _“Arthur!”_ Lewis grabbed Arthur’s hand and pulled him back away from the stone. “Are you okay?”

A thoughtful frown drew Arthur’s eyebrows down and he worried his bottom lip with the point of one fang. “Yeah, but I wouldn’t want to touch that for long. It felt like holding a live wire in my hand.” He let Lewis turn his palm over and examine it for injuries. There was nothing to see, though Lewis thought his skin felt rather warm to the touch.

Arthur sighed and pulled his hand free of Lewis’s grasp. “I’m fine, seriously, big guy. It just stung.” He stared down at his green-skinned, clawed hand. “Maybe— maybe, I can’t—” his voice wavered slightly. “C-can _you_ touch it?”

There was something in Arthur’s face that worried Lewis. He reached out and pressed a palm to the boulder. It didn’t hurt, though it felt strangely firmer than most things. The only things he’d been able to handle with such solidity were Arthur and his little ghostlings, which Arthur had jokingly started referring to as deadbeats, citing that it was the way they harmonized with Lewis.

He pressed harder, willing his hand to pass into the stone. It worked, but it was harder than it should have been and it felt like the stone was pressing back. He pulled his hand back with a frown. “It feels weird to me too, but I can touch it and pass through it, though it’s hard and uncomfortable.”

Arthur frowned down at his claws, flexing his fingers over and over. His expression was strange. “Well, at least you can get out…” he muttered softly.

“Not without you!” Lewis snapped back, irritation building. Thay’d had this argument before, with Arthur obstinately urging Lewis to leave him behind and go check on his family and Vivi.

Lewis couldn’t deny that he was very worried about why Vivi had not come back at least for Arthur. Did she think they were both dead? He desperately wanted to be sure she was okay— but he never wanted to leave Arthur alone here for any length of time. Arthur had defeated the demon in his mind, but Lewis knew his friend well. Left alone with only his thoughts, Arthur could easily descend into _very_ dark places.

Arthur didn’t bother starting the argument with him this time, cautiously getting back to his feet, and avoiding any contact with the boulder and the wall close to it. Warily, he picked at the stone cave wall with a claw. “Can you get through the rest of this any easier?”

Lewis touched the wall, finding it was easier to phase through, the farther he moved from the stone sealing the entrance. “I think I can pass through without too much trouble.”

“Good,” Arthur carefully sat down as far from the boulder as he could get without leaving the vicinity of the entrance. “Then I need you to do me a favor.”

Lewis whirled on him. “I am not leaving you!!”

Arthur looked up at him, face pale even under the green. “You’re going to have to, big guy,” Arthur’s half-smile was strained. “How long have we been trapped down here, anyway?”

Flustered by the abrupt change of subject, Lewis could only shrug. “I don’t know. Both our cell phones broke and it’s really kinda hard to tell time in a lightless cave.” Never mind that he was— _dead_ , and his only real companion was delirious and slipping in and out of consciousness.

“Been a few days, at least?” Arthur still had that fixed smile on his face, though his gaze shifted back to the stone blocking him in.

“Yeah, I think so…” Lewis thought back over Arthur’s struggle and transformation. Even without a clear sense of time passing, that had to have taken a while. It had to have been— oh a week or two, at least. “Something like that.”

Arthur huffed a strained laugh. “Yeah, something in that area.” He leaned back against the wall, wings rustling and curling tightly around his hunched body; the tufted end of his tail twitched on the rocky floor like an irritated cat. “Has it occurred to you— believe me, it _just_ occurred to me too— that I haven’t had shit to eat or drink since then?”

To call the feeling that welled up in Lewis’s chest panic would be too mild a term. He was dead, so there had been no sensation of hunger or thirst to remind him. And somewhere in the struggle of Arthur trying to maintain control over the creature that had infected him he had lost sight of Arthur needing food and water to survive. “I— _oh, hell_ — we gotta get you outta here, find you some— _Shit, hold on_ — I’ll—” Unsure of what to do first, Lewis whirled in a panicked circle.

 **“Lewis!”** Arthur’s sharp tone cut across the welling panic like a knife.

Lewis stilled, hands falling to his sides.

Arthur laughed a little wryly. “If it hasn’t killed me yet, big guy, I doubt it will in the next ten minutes. Cool your jets.”

Lewis drew in an unneeded breath, striving to beat down the panic. “Ri—right. I have to get you some food… and then we have to get you out of here.”

Arthur looked pained. “Lewis, we both know that’s a bad idea. But that’s not important, at the moment, okay? I think… I think my body just remembered that it needs food because it’s currently trying to gnaw through my backbone.” As if on cue, there was a loud and painful sounding gurgle from his midsection, and his wings shuddered around him. “Okay, _ow,”_ Arthur said mildly, flashing Lewis a stiff grin.

Lewis ached for the real pain Arthur was hiding behind a flippant remark and a forced smile. “Okay, okay— _food._ I gotta get you something to eat. _Right._ I can— I can… _I have to go find you food!”_

Arthur’s chuckle didn’t sound too forced. “Yeah, you go do that. I’ll be fine until you get back, promise… unless you like take a week or something.” Arthur pulled a hand from the cocoon of his wings and flipped his clawed fingers in Lewis’s direction. “Go on, shoo.”

“Arthur…” Lewis hesitated, hovering over Arthur’s huddled form.

The humor dripped from Arthur’s face like water from a broken glass. “Just go. I’ll be okay. Just…” His voice went quiet. “Just hurry back, okay?”

That was enough to convince Lewis he was going to make record time. He was already wary of leaving Arthur, and that just clinched his feelings about the matter. “I’ll be right back, I promise, _mi hermano.”_

Arthur nodded, his eyes never leaving Lewis.

Lewis faced the wall close to the boulder, but still far enough that whatever was wrong with the rock could not effect him.

“Hey, big guy?”

Lewis turned back to Arthur. “Yeah?”

Instinctively, he snatched the object hurtling at his head out of the air. He glanced down to find his hand clenched around Arthur’s bloodstained and battered wallet. “Might need some money, y’know?” Arthur chided with a half-smile.

Lewis felt an answering smile tug at his lips. Arthur had ever been the practical one.

The leather of the wallet had protected its contents well enough, though there were disturbing rust-brown stains on the bills in the outer fold. Lewis carefully removed the money and Arthur’s driver’s license. The four photos Arthur kept in his wallet had survived unscathed, safe in their plastic sleeves. One of the four of them beside Arthur’s beloved old van, one of Arthur’s parents with a much younger Arthur, one of Lance grumbling in the direction of the camera and a family shot of the Pepper’s, Lewis included, in front of the restaurant. Lewis pulled the picture section out and handed it to Arthur, who took it gingerly, trying to keep his claws from damaging the precious memories.

Lewis had salvaged his own wallet from— from the body, though it was just as badly ruined as Arthur’s. He had tucked everything from the wallet into the heart locket, which seemed somehow _larger_ than it had been before. He added the least stained of the bills from Arthur’s wallet and Arthur’s other cards to the locket and tucked it back into his vest in the inner pocket right above his heart. He crouched beside Arthur, still carefully holding the pictures close to his chest, and brushed a gentle hand over Arthur’s hair. “I’ll be back as quickly as I can be with food and water.”

Arthur leaned his head into the touch, his eyes half-shuttered. “Thanks, Lew.”

Lewis nodded and stood. He called his three deadbeats to him. Singling out the one that reminded him most of Paprika, he ordered, “You come with me. You two, I want you to stay with Arthur until I get back.” They chirruped softly in response, one immediately curling around Arthur’s neck and shoulders and the other diving into the cocoon of Arthur’s wings, peering out with a self-satisfied look in its yellow eyes.

Arthur squawked indignantly, but seemed to resign himself quickly enough to being cuddled by the two spirits. He sagged back against the wall, eyes half-closed.

“I’ll be back as quickly as possible.” Lewis promised softly. He didn’t want to leave Arthur, but knew he had no choice. Before he could think twice, he pressed into the stone of the wall and after a long moment of weird non-sensation, found himself knee deep in the brambles surrounding the cave. He glanced back at the entrance and saw evidence of a rockslide. So that was what had brought the boulder down to block the mouth… he wondered what had set it off.

Lewis shook the thought off. He had much more important things to think about, like getting Arthur some food. If he remembered correctly, there was a gas station about a mile, maybe a mile and a half back down the road. He could find something for Arthur there. It shouldn’t take him more than an hour if he ran…

His little companion chirped at him and made a lifting motion with both of its stubby little arms. _What?_ He shrugged in bafflement.

How it could look so exasperated, Lewis didn’t know, but it did. Warbling, it repeated the motion, floating a little higher. “What? I don’t have _time_ for this!”

It hissed like an irritated cat and floated a little higher.

Lewis was about to ignore it and take off running when it occurred to him. _“Oh—”_ He wasn’t constrained by gravity any more. He could move faster than running if he was in the air. “Right.” He lifted off the ground and hurried back the way they had come… how long ago had it been now? He didn’t know and that worried him. What had happened to Vivi and Mystery? How was his family? Arthur’s uncle? What had they heard?

He hadn’t realized how quickly he was moving until he saw the gas station coming up fast. Lewis slowed and dropped to the ground; he didn’t want to scare people. Signaling his deadbeat to stay in the edge of the trees, he crossed the parking area at a fast jog. The place was mostly empty, only one old man browsing a rack of magazines and a sullen-faced teenager behind the register. Lewis took a quick look around before heading right for the aisle with snacks and a few other food staples. He wanted with a desperation that bordered on madness to take it all back to Arthur, but he was limited by what he and his deadbeat could carry.

It was then he caught his reflection in the tiny mirror on a carousel of sunglasses. It struck him like a hammer blow, seeing glowing magenta irises on black. No wonder Arthur had known his demise hadn’t been just a nightmare. Cursing softly under his breath in spanish, Lewis snagged a pair of dark glasses from the display and yanked the tag off, putting them on hurriedly. He’d pay for them with the food, but he couldn’t let anyone else see his otherworldly eyes.

With that taken care of, he returned to the door long enough to snag a basket and began to fill it. Five of the largest bags of beef jerky he could find, a handful of packets of crackers, both cheese and peanut butter filled, as many granola and protein bars as he could find, a bag of fruit snacks and another of trail mix went in the basket before he stopped to think. Nothing perishable and nothing that they had to cook, being as they were currently lacking both stove and refrigerator. He snagged a bag of Arthur’s favorite chips and decided he’d call it quits on food for now. He headed for the cooler case and grabbed a six pack of large bottles of water, four bottles of gatorade, all of in Arthur’s favorite flavors, and one of those meal replacement shakes. He didn’t know how out of whack Arthur’s system was after so long without food or drink and he wanted to make sure he got as many things to bring it back into some sort of balance as he could.

This would do for now, he could always make another trip if he had to, but his priority was getting food to Arthur now. He headed for the register. His attention was arrested by a newspaper stand near the counter. He involuntarily wet his lips as he processed the date. A little over a month had passed since that fateful trip. With a shaking hand he added a copy of the paper to his pile of goods, thunking the heavy basket down on the counter in front of the teenager, handing him the tag for the sunglasses he was wearing.

Lewis didn’t think he came off as unnerving, but the teen was white-faced and shaking as he rang up everything. Lewis tried to dial back whatever was making the kid so jumpy but he couldn’t really tell if he succeeded. The teen’s voice wavered and cracked as he told Lewis his total. He didn’t have enough cash, so handed the kid a twenty and a ten, trying hard not to look at the brown stains on both bills, and pulled his debit card out of his locket. “I’ll pay the rest on my card. Is there a post office around here?” He really needed to contact Vivi.

The teenager took his card and shook his head. “N-no, sir, nearest one is in Devil’s Tongue, bout t-twenty miles down the road.”

Devil’s Tongue— some hundred-odd miles from Tempo. Lewis frowned. He didn’t dare leave Arthur that long, even after he’d brought him food. The teen handed him a pen and a receipt to sign. Lewis scribbled his signature and accepted his copy of the receipt with a thoughtful hum. “Can I borrow your pen?”

The kid nodded hard, bagging Lewis’s things. “Y-you can have it, I’ve got a cupful of them.”

Lewis smiled and thanked him, and that seemed to do the trick, the kid relaxed.

Gathering up his bags, Lewis hurried out of the parking area to where he’d left his little minion spirit. He handed it two of the lighter bags. “C’mon, we need to get back.”

Chirping, it followed after him as he headed back toward the cave and Arthur.

It was halfway there that the bag holding the water split. Lewis managed to catch the water before it hit the ground and burst open any of the bottles, but it was going to be hard to juggle it and the other bags. He settled on the ground to try and rearrange things. Frowning at the flimsy plastic bags, Lewis wished he had something like the reusable shopping bags like the ones Papa used when he went to the farmer’s market. It would make carrying everything much easier.

Magenta-tinged fog curled into a shape on the leaf-littered ground. Lewis could only blink as it shaped itself into a duplicate of one of his father’s shopping bags, only tinted the same magenta as the fog. Cautiously, Lewis prodded it with a fingertip. It felt solid.

Had— had he _made_ it, simply by wishing for it? Lewis concentrated on wanting another. The same fog appeared and before long a second bag, identical to the first, lay on the ground. Lewis picked one up and marveled at it. He had made this? His need had created it! He turned it over in his hands, awed.

It was the cooing of his deadbeat that pulled his attention back to the matter at hand. Right, Arthur. Lewis loaded his purchases in the bags _(that he had made!)_ and took to the air again.

He landed just outside the tangle of brambles. He wasn’t going to risk the boulder and the strange effect it had. He headed for the place he had emerged from, phasing into the wall easily… only his arms halted, holding him back. Lewis tugged, hard, but nothing happened. Frustrated, he turned and poked his head back out of the stone. His hand and the bag had phased into the stone, but the contents were not coming. Frustrated anger burned in his throat. _No!_ He had to get the food and water to Arthur! He yanked hard, but a trickle of damp on the stone stopped his hand cold. _No…_

Lewis phased back out of the wall, checking the bag. One bottle’s neck had been had crushed by his efforts and water was leaking from the cap. Devastated, Lewis sank to his knees. He had what Arthur needed but he couldn’t get it to him. No…

Rage built in his chest again like a blaze. No, not when he was so close. He pounded a fist on the stone in front of him. It left a scorch mark on the wall. Lewis blinked down at his hand and the purple flames flickering around it. _Oh…_

A dangerous smile curved his lips up. Maybe there were advantages to balance the scales of being no longer living.

Leaving the bags where they lay, he went back through the wall. _“Arthur!”_

Arthur was still curled where he had left him, one hand idly scratching a deadbeat with the tips of his claws. He looked up and smiled tiredly at Lewis. “Hey. That was quick, big guy.”

Lewis crouched next to him. “Hey. I know you’re tired and hungry, but I need you to get up for a sec.”

Arthur blinked but made an effort to get to his feet. Lewis assisted him. Arthur smiled faintly, “Mmn, warm.”

“You have _no_ idea.” Lewis slung Arthur’s arm over his shoulder and helped him stumble  towards where the paths split.

“Where we going?” Arthur staggered along as best he could, still unsteady on his feet, and the hunger weakening him further.

“I need to get you someplace safe. I have to try something and I need you far away.”

“What’s going on?” Now Arthur was more alert.

Lewis eased Arthur down in an alcove near where the two paths diverged. “Nothing you need to worry about. Just stay here and keep your head down.” Lewis turned his attention to the two tiny ghosts with them. “Keep him safe.”

Arthur looked alarmed. “What are you doing?”

Lewis knelt and stroked Arthur’s hair for a second, offering a wry half-smile. “I’ll tell you if it works.”

He rose, followed by Arthur’s indignant, _“Lewis!”_

Back outside, he moved the bags to a distance he thought would be safe.

Facing the boulder that kept Arthur trapped, Lewis summoned up every bit of rage in him. The fury at the rock entombing his best friend, the hatred for the thing that had tortured and tormented Arthur, the burning rage at being abandoned here, the helpless anger at his own death; all bubbled in non-existent veins and poured out of him in a primal scream and a blast of roaring fire.

Lewis fell to his knees as the smoke cleared and the ambient temperature of the air slowly returned to normal. If he still breathed, he’d have been panting for breath. He felt drained and hollow after that outpouring of rage. But a bubbling sense of joy filled him as he looked up to see that the obstruction was gone, the massive boulder cracked in two and the way clear. He laughed weakly and got himself up off the ground. He hurried down the tunnel, determination to get to back to Arthur giving him back some of the strength he’d expended. _“Artie!”_

A cough answered him and Arthur, covered in rock dust— but unharmed, peered up at him. His eyes were wide, green showing all around the irises and pupils pinpricks from fright. “B-big guy—? What _the hell_ was that?!”

Grinning, Lewis pulled Arthur into a crushing hug. “That— that was a way out of this damned cave!” He whirled Arthur around, ignoring his frantic squawk and flailing wings. “We’re getting you _out_ of this hellhole.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter started to get a little unwieldy with everything so I wound up breaking it in two.


	5. Dead and Gone

Arthur stiffened in his grasp and clawed fingers plucked at Lewis’s arms. “And go where, Lewis? Find another cave to rot in?” He didn’t even sound angry anymore, just resigned. He slipped out of Lewis’s arms and staggered, leaning heavily against the wall.

Lewis didn’t bother to steady him, instead bodily scooping him up in his arms. Arthur struggled in his grasp, tail lashing around him like a serpent. “I’m not letting you stay here or in any godforsaken cave, Arthur. I’m not going to fight with you, but I’m not leaving you behind either. We have to get out of here, anyway. I’m pretty sure someone noticed what just happened.”

Arthur paused, glaring narrow-eyed at his large companion. “What _did_ just happen?”

Lewis ducked his head, bangs falling over the sunglasses he was wearing. “I got a little angry.”

“You— got— You got a little angry?” Arthur blinked, head cocked to one side and tail ceasing its angry movement. “What the hell is _that_ supposed to mean?”

Lewis turned back toward the exit, hovering just slightly off the ground to avoid the tumbled rocks that his blast must have shaken loose. “You’ll see…”

Arthur made an exasperated sound. “I’m going to kick your ectoplasmic ass six ways from Sunday if you don’t start explaining.”

Lewis turned the last curve in the tunnel and warm golden sunlight  greeted them.

Arthur stilled in his arms, taking in the boulder, now in two massive pieces, and the bright daylight beyond.

Lewis carried him into the sunlight before he could object, carefully avoiding the pieces of the stone. He didn’t know what magic it had on it that prevented Arthur from touching it; he hoped the breaking of the boulder had dispelled it but was taking no chances with Arthur’s safety.

Thankfully, nothing happened except for Arthur closing his eyes and turning his face up into the sunlight. He sighed, a shiver passing through his entire body. “I— I never thought I’d see the sun again,” he breathed, almost too softly to be heard.

Lewis just cradled him a little closer to his chest and carried him over to the shade of the trees where he had left his deadbeat guarding the bags. Carefully, he eased Arthur down on the ground, back against a tree trunk, and hurried to rummage in the bags. He presented Arthur with the meal replacement bottle and the water bottle that he had crushed the neck of.

Arthur paused in just inhaling deep lungfuls of the air and eyed the first bottle warily, making a face. “Big guy…”

Kneeling in front of him, Lewis shook the bottle and then cracked it open since he wasn’t sure how well Arthur could manage it with those claws. “Just… humor me, alright? We were down there a while and you haven’t had anything since— well, _since._ I just want to make sure you can keep this down.” The image of Arthur pinned like a bug through the abdomen by the stone stalagmite lurked behind his eyes and he hurriedly banished it. “You— you weren’t _well_ for a long time. I just want to be sure.”

Arthur sagged in surrender, one corner of his lips tugging up in a wry smile. “Ever my keeper, eh?” He took the bottle and stared down at it for a long moment before rolling his shoulders and taking a mouthful. He made a face, but took another swig.

“Drink slowly,” Lewis reminded him. “And— I’m not your _keeper,_ Arthur. I’m your friend. And right now, I’m trying to help.”

Arthur reached out and gently caught his shoulder, so careful of his claws, Lewis could barely feel the pressure of his hand. “I know, bud… I get it. I guess I’m just being grumpy because I’m hungry, but I know you’re right, I shouldn’t try too much too fast.”

Sighing, Lewis relaxed a little. “Just keep that down and I promise there’s real food for later, well—  pretty much non-perishable stuff I could grab from the gas station down the road, but solid food, at least.”

Arthur nodded and continued taking small sips from the bottle, spacing them out with swallows from the water bottle.

Lewis looked around nervously, wondering how long they had before someone came to investigate what had to have been a pretty spectacular light show. He glanced up at his three little ghosts playing tag in the branches of the tree Arthur was leaning against and made a decision. They needed to move.

He settled down on the grass and concentrated on creating a third bag like the first two he’d made, this one more like a knapsack that he could sling over his shoulders. It took more effort and he knew he’d burned too much energy in getting Arthur out. But now wasn’t a time for rest. He gathered up the bags, loading the heavy things like the water and gatorade in the backpack and dividing the rest of his purchases between the other two bags. He called the deadbeats down and gave two of them a bag to carry while he put the knapsack on. The third he directed to scout the trees ahead.

He returned his attention to Arthur, to find he’d had finished most of the nutritional shake and about a third of the bottle of water. Arthur had set them both aside and smiled faintly at him. “I feel too full to drink more right now.”

Lewis nodded and recapped the shake, but tucked the water bottle back into Arthur’s hands. “Just hang onto this. Keep sipping on it when you can. I’m pretty sure you’re the next best thing to dehydrated.” He added what was left of the shake to one of the deadbeat’s bags and hoisted Arthur up into his arms again.

“I can walk, you big goof!” Arthur protested indignantly.

Lewis shook his head. “I don’t wanna leave a trail and those talons of yours will leave a pretty recognizable one. I’m pretty sure someone is going to come along sooner or later to investigate what I did.”

Arthur twisted in his arms to look back at the cave as Lewis floated away from it. “”What does it matter?”

“Do you still want to be anywhere nearby when they discover what’s in there?” Lewis resolutely kept his eyes on the flash of pink amid the branches that was his scout.

“What’s in there—?” Arthur’s eyes widened as Lewis’s meaning sank in and he began to struggle to get down in earnest. _“No!_ We can’t just leave—”

It was a good thing that hunger and dehydration had left Arthur weak, or he’d never have been able to keep hold of him. “Arthur, hush. We don’t have a choice. What else can we do? Bury— _it_ in an unmarked grave somewhere here in the woods?”

Arthur choked. “N-no. B-but we can’t—” His voice broke and he sounded on the verge of crying. “I can’t, Lew…”

Lewis held him closer. “It’s o-okay.” He knew the break in his voice betrayed him, but he couldn’t risk Arthur’s safety for— for _a dead body._ “It’ll be okay.”

Arthur shook his head frantically. “It’ll _never_ be okay!” he raged, his voice thick with unshed tears. “I— I can’t— W-what about your f-family, Lewis?”

Lewis had already thought of it, but that didn’t make hearing it any easier. “They— they’ll have some closure this way, instead of wondering for the rest of t-their lives what happened to me.”

Arthur kept shaking his head in silent refutation, his claws digging into the front of Lewis’s vest.

“It’s better this way,” Lewis’s voice was faint.

“No, it’s _not,”_ Arthur denied, sniffling. “I can’t do that to your family. Leave me here, go home be-before they hear from the police—”

“No.” Lewis was firm. “No, Arthur. I’m not leaving you.”

Arthur shoved against his chest. “No! You should— should get away from me! I’m poison!”

“You are not poison!” Lewis snapped back, his control already frayed dangerously thin. “Stop it!”

The sound that escaped Arthur was akin to the hiss of an enraged cat. His lips drew back from his teeth, baring the sharpened canines. “Leave! Just go _home,_ dammit!”

Startled, Lewis stared aghast at the faint tinge of green bleeding into Arthur’s gold irises. His arms reflexively went slack and Arthur thumped hard to the ground.

Arthur yelped, wings flailing, and the malevolent color receded between one blink and the next. He seemed to realize what had happened in the next instant, terror replacing the rage on his face and tears welling in his eyes. With a horrified sob, Arthur curled into a small ball, his wings wrapping tightly over his head, and tail coiling around the quaking bundle of fright he had become.

Lewis dropped to his knees and wrapped his arms around Arthur. Arthur flinched away, but Lewis was determined not to let him escape. “Shush,” he soothed. “You need me. This is why I’m staying with you.”

Arthur’s voice was small and choked from inside the tent of his wings. “You shouldn’t. You should leave me before I become the monster that I look like now.”

Lewis thumped a wing-joint with a forefinger, causing it to reflexively move enough for him to see Arthur’s face. “You are still Arthur Kingsmen. You are not a monster and never will be. Did that thing in your head try to take over again?”

Arthur slumped. “I don’t know. I— I was angry at you and wanted you to go home. It was like all this rage came boiling up out of my stomach, but I was still me… I _think.”_ His wings trembled. “I— I _hope.”_

Lewis reached his hand into the cocoon of Arthur’s wings and tipped Arthur’s chin up to face him. “I’m pretty sure you were,” he corrected gently. “If it did try to take control, you beat it. When you were enraged, your eyes started going green, but as soon as you were startled out of your anger and realized what had happened, it faded and you went back to normal.”

Arthur made a sound that might have been a weak laugh. “For a _given_ value of normal…” he snorted, waving a clawed hand to indicate himself.

“But you are still you. You’re my friend and you need me, whether you want to admit it or not. As much as it hurts, at this moment, you need me more than my family. I cannot and will not leave you.”

Arthur sniffled. “You’re still a big sap. I wish I weren’t a burden on you.”

Lewis pulled him in for a hug. Arthur’s wings reflexively spread out as a counterbalance, but when he was cradled against Lewis’s chest, they relaxed and wrapped around Lewis in turn. It reminded Lewis of when he’d been small and mama had draped a blanket around him, comforting and warm. It felt nice. “You’re not a burden, Arthur. Never.”

“Says you,” Arthur grumbled, his face buried in the crook of Lewis’s shoulder.

“Yep. And I’m never wrong, so shush.” Lewis scolded jokingly. He hesitated for a long moment, before going on. “What if I send one of my deadbeats to Vivi with a note to let her know we’re both… _o-okay?_ She can— can tell my parents… something. So even if the police tell them— _that_ — she can reassure them that I’m not entirely… gone. Would that be better?”

Arthur’s shoulders tensed. “I— I don’t know that I-I’m safe for her to be around. It’s still in me, even if I’m in control. I don’t dare risk her. Look what I already did!”

Lewis shook him. “You didn’t do it! That evil thing in your head did. Don’t you dare blame yourself for something that wasn’t your fault at all!” he reprimanded, a little harshly, but he couldn’t bear to see Arthur blaming himself. He’d seen the monster with his own eyes and had watched Arthur struggle endlessly against it, even lost in pain and delirium. “Look, I won’t tell her— where we are or anything, just that you and I are… still around. Just to reassure her and have her reassure my parents. At least until you’re recovered enough to be sure you are always the one in control. And like I said, maybe Vivi an— maybe she’ll know a way to make sure you always stay in control.”

Arthur relaxed a little, though his hold on Lewis didn’t slacken. “Yeah— yeah that would be good. Soon as possible, okay, big guy? I don’t want the Pepper’s to be hurt… anymore than they have been.”

Nodding, Lewis agreed, “As soon as I find you a safe place. Promise.” He was glad of his sunglasses. They hid the tears welling in his eyes. He didn’t want his family hurting either, but it was for the best.

It hadn’t escaped his notice that Arthur had made no mention of his uncle. Would he let Lance go on thinking his nephew had vanished? He made a mental note to add a line about letting Lance know that Arthur was still alive to his proposed note to Vivi.

Arthur sighed and leaned into him a little more. “Heh. Dunno what you think you’ll find out here that isn’t a cave. We’re in the middle of nowhere.”

“You let me worry about that. How are you feeling? Stomach okay?” Lewis knew he was distracting himself from thinking about his family’s pain by fussing over Arthur, but it was all he knew how to do to keep himself steady.

Arthur nodded and fumbled for the water bottle he’d dropped when Lewis had dropped him. “Yeah, I think so. Still feel a little full, but not nauseous or anything. If I keep this down, can I finally have something solid?” he asked plaintively, finding the water bottle and taking a sip. “Something to get the taste of fake strawberries outta my mouth.”

Lewis pulled back until Arthur’s clinging wings slipped away. Almost instinctively, it seemed, the wings groped after him until Arthur scowled at them and used his hands to fold them in tight. “Stupid things,” the mechanic grumbled. “Can’t get them to work and they’re always in the way.”

Lewis stepped close again and scooped Arthur back up into his arms, ignoring the disgruntled protest he got in return. “I promise you can have some real food soon. Just a little bit longer. Your stomach has to get used to working again.” He resettled Arthur more comfortably and called his deadbeats. “Let’s go. I still want to put some more distance between us and that cave.”

Arthur grumbled, but settled down obediently, scrubbing at the tear-stains on his cheeks with the heel of one hand. “I hate feeling like this; like a—”

“Don’t even,” Lewis hushed him, sending his scout out ahead again as he floated a careful distance off the ground after it and deeper into the trees. “You are not a pain, a burden, k-killer or any of the other nasty words running through that stubborn head of yours.”

Arthur huffed, accidentally clacking his claws on his horns. “Ow… stupid things,” he groused. “I need a giant pair of nail clippers…” He scratched a claw carefully at the base of one of his backwards-curving horns. “And maybe a belt-sander.”

Lewis adjusted his hold on Arthur enough to jostle his elbow. “Oh, shush.” Arthur’s claw slipped and left a trickle of blood, bright red against green skin, at the base of his horn. “Okay, so maybe the nail clippers?” he corrected himself, with a sheepish smile.

“Ow.” Arthur snorted, but offered him a wry smile. “Y’think?” He fanned out his clawed fingers. “At least now you understand why. These nails are clawfully dangerous.”

“Don’t make me drop you again.”

Arthur’s smile became a little more real.  “You threatening me or just talon me?”

“Ass. ground; now!” Lewis threatened laughingly. At least if Arthur was punning, he wasn’t tearing himself apart with dark thoughts. It helped Lewis banish his own troubling thoughts, creeping in like tar around the edges when he wasn’t concentrating on Arthur or the very moment.

“Aw, did I nail it?”

“I _will_ drop you.”

“I swear, Lewis, you’re always cutting me short when I get a little punny.” Arthur was actually chuckling now, the corners of his eyes crinkled up with mirth. “You’ve got to admit, I’m a little talon-ted in the pun department. After all, I worked hard to claw my way to the top. I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t horn a pun or two in.”

“Arthur…” Lewis warned.

“You’re just jealous you can’t match my fangtastic grasp on puns.”

Arthur was saved from his butt making an unpleasant meeting with the ground by the return of Lewis’s scout, warbling excitedly. It looped around them, trilling and gesticulating ahead.

Arthur cocked his head and squinted sideways at it. “Can you actually understand what these guys are saying?”

“Not as such.” Lewis responded absently, concentrating on trying to make sense of what he was getting from the deadbeat. “It’s more images and sensations. I think it saw something it wants us to see but I don’t get more than bright light and green.”

A moment later they broke through the tree cover and into a decently sized clearing where grass and bunches of wildflowers had taken over the rocky ground. Arthur squinted for a moment, but managed a smile. “Okay, I admit, it’s got good taste. This is pretty.”

A cool breeze ruffled the grass and Arthur’s hair and he lifted his face into it. “Man, I almost forgot how good fresh air smells.”

Lewis’s deadbeat had crossed the clearing and was chirping at the tree-line, stubby arms flapping in a come-on motion. Lewis looked down at Arthur to find his face turned up into the sun and his wings making little abortive movements like they wanted to stretch out, not that they could, pinned between Arthur’s back and Lewis’s arm. Making a quick decision, Lewis carefully set Arthur on his feet.

The blond wobbled a little, looking at him in confusion. “Big Guy? What’s up?”

“Nothing,” Lewis shook his head and guided Arthur under the shade of a tree. “Figured you might want to sit down and rest. I mean, you did just come off a starvation diet.”

“Uh-huh,” Arthur leaned back against the tree, folding his arms across his chest. Balancing himself with wings and tail, he stuck one leg out, waggling his elongated toes at Lewis. “Pull the other one. You still suck at lying to me.”

Lewis sighed, letting his shoulders sag. Arthur had always been able to see right through him when he tried to lie. “I thought you could enjoy the sun a bit. You were obviously missing it.”

Arthur chuckled and put his foot down, rebalancing. “What gave me away; the cave-mushroom pallor?” He glanced down at himself. “Or have I started growing things besides horns and wings— like moss?”

“No,” Lewis shook his head. “I just… I’m glad you’re out of that damned cave. I think we could both use some time to just enjoy the sun.”

Very carefully, Arthur straightened up and stepped to the edge of the little patch of shade, sun-dappled shadows across his face. “That actually sounds good.” He sat down on the ground, wings unfurling to catch the breeze and legs stretched out on the grass.

Lewis called hs deadbeats to him and rummaged in one of the bags until he’d found one of the packages of cheese crackers. He pulled a bottle of gatorade out of his own bag and wordlessly offered both to Arthur.

Arthur’s eyebrows went up, but he accepted them both eagerly enough. Before Lewis could say a word, he lifted a hand. “I know, I know, eat slowly. I remember.”

Lewis sighed, but watched as Arthur opened the cellophane package and pulled a cracker out. True to his word, he only nibbled on it slowly, spacing it out with swallows of gatorade. The look of pleasure in his eyes made Lewis want to find someplace safe where he could actually cook real food for Arthur again. Soon, he mentally promised. He would find a way.

He felt a pulling sensation in his mind and looked up to see the deadbeat he’d been using as a scout at the other edge of the clearing, dancing impatiently in the air and gesticulating at him. There was definitely something it wanted him to see.

He glanced back at Arthur. “I’ll be right back. Stay here—” he indicated the hovering deadbeat with one hand. “While I go see what it wants. You two, stay with him. Keep him safe.”

He hurried off before Arthur could manage a garbled protest to being looked after.

The little deadbeat hovering by the treeline let off a steam-kettle screech that said very clearly that it was about time Lewis listened to it. Chirruping excitedly, it led the way into the trees.

Lewis followed it for quite a way, getting more concerned the further they got from Arthur. The trees were tangled and overgrown around him, dark and deep shadows lurking beneath them. He was about to decide that they needed to turn back when they broke into another clearing, this one obviously human created, to judge by the moss-covered stumps of trees. Under the overhang of branches was a decently sized cabin, broken-out windows like dark eyes staring back at him.

It looked long-abandoned, the porch sagging on one side where a support post had broken, but if it was still solid, maybe he could clean it up and have a place where Arthur could rest and recover. It was a hope, and infinitely better than the hellish cave they had been trapped in. And he wasn’t keen on finding another cave either.

The atmosphere wasn’t oppressive, but there was a sort of… it almost felt like there were eyes on him as he entered the clearing. His little deadbeat zipped to his shoulder and clung, warbling softly.

There was a ring of bright red mushrooms in a near perfect arc around the the front of the cabin, vanishing into the woods that hid the back of the building, and something niggled at his memory so he stopped just outside of it. Among Vivi’s collections of folklore “fairy rings” like these were associated with the fair folk and other magic. Lewis had never been sure how much he believed, but seeing as he was now a ghost and his best friend was a demon in body, if _not_ spirit, he figured he’d err on the side of caution. He sketched a bow toward the ring and quietly described their plight and his need for a safe place for Arthur to recover and hide from humanity that would see him as a monster. He might have felt silly talking to nothing but open air and mushrooms, but it almost felt like the atmosphere lightened with every word, so he continued, finishing with another bow and a studiously polite, “By your leave.”

It felt like the clearing breathed a sigh of relief and the shadows grew a little lighter. Lewis took that as permission and floated carefully over the line of mushrooms. Maybe it was just his imagination, but he felt better about it. He reminded himself to warn Arthur not to step on the ring, if this place did turn out to be a safe place to stay.

He drifted closer, carefully raising himself so he did not touch the listing porch. He’d have to find some way to shore that up. The door was locked, but that was no hindrance to him. He simply passed right through it. The interior was dark, but at the thought, several of his little will o-wisps appeared and cast the room in a soft purple light. Everything was covered in a thick layer of dust, and only the tracks of small animals had ever disturbed it. It appeared the roof was still sound, with no cracks or sagging spots to indicate damage, though there were piles of windblown detritus under all the long-vanished windows, one of which a tiny white birch sapling had taken root in, silvery bark bright in the light of his wisps. It looked like it had been abandoned in a hurry, furnishings still in place and in the (too) tiny kitchen, dishes still stacked in the drainboard, though now they were covered in dust like everything else. Lewis investigated cabinets to find canned goods, though anything in cardboard had hosted any number of small diners. He checked the date on a can, unsurprised to find that it was several years expired.

Obviously, whatever had happened here, it had been a long enough time ago that they might go unnoticed here. It would take work to make it livable, but it was more than they had an hour ago.

His deadbeat, which had been investigating corners and cupboards with all the curiosity of a hundred cats, paused at one of the busted windows and turned it’s yellow gaze on Lewis. It chirruped and pointed at the windowsill before folding its tiny arms across its torso and offering a full-body shiver.

“You are not cold,” Lewis scolded disbelievingly. “It’s the middle of May in Texas.”

It screeched back at him in clear exasperation, using its stubby arms to indicate something on either side of its forehead.

When Lewis blinked in incomprehension, it made another annoyed noise and drew something in the dust on the windowsill. Lewis drifted over to see. It was a stick figure with comically oversized wings and two curved marks on its head. “Oh, Arthur…”

It was right though. Nights did still get cool, and this deep in the woods, with trees holding damp in, it was liable to get pretty chilly. Lewis rested a hand on the windowsill, wishing he had some way to replace the glass. He didn’t want to cover them over, and make it far too dark inside… it would only remind them both of the cave.

Purplish fog swirled around his hand on the wood and he stopped in disbelief. Could he…? He’d made the bags but could he repair things the same way? Could he fix things around here?

Only one way to find out… Placing both hands on the sill, he closed his eyes and concentrated, imagining the windows with glass in the frames. After a moment he dared to open his eyes. Laughter bubbled up in his throat. It had worked! The windows looked like they had never been broken, though the glass now had the faintest tinge of purple.  He rapped on it with a knuckle and it resonated with the clear tone of glass.

Grabbing his deadbeat, he laughed and whirled it around in a dizzy little circle. “Look at that! I wonder what else I can do?”

Word was as good as deed, and Lewis grinned wildly. He could fix this place up good for Arthur and himself! His first thought was to conjure a broom, but he was quick to realize he was thinking too small. He went back outside and remade the support post and checked over the rest of the porch for weaknesses. Finding no other issues, he went back inside and examined the rest of the cabin, finding the small bathroom and another room that was bare of any furnishings. 

There was a tiny loft that he imagined had been the sleeping area, but as neither he or Arthur were keen on heights anymore, that wouldn’t do. He peered out the kitchen door and found that the cleared area went deeper than he thought, though he could see that the ring of mushrooms went deeper still into the trees. Could he expand the cabin? He’d made the bag and window and support out of thin air after all. Firstly, he carefully transported the little birch sapling outside, carefully planting it to one side of the porch. It deserved a chance, and he wanted to take no chances with his _(surely imagined)_ welcome here.

Silently reassuring himself that he was only limited by his imagination, he went back into the cabin and seated himself on the dusty floorboards. Closing his eyes, he let his mind pull up image after image of things he would like to do. A larger bathroom, there wasn’t room for Arthur to turn around in that one. A kitchen like the one at his parent’s house, large enough for a family of six to gather in, to help with cooking and setting the table. Bedrooms for the both of them and a place for Arthur to tinker, because Lewis would never imagine Arthur without some small gizmo he was creating. Maybe another room, for when they were sure Arthur was safe to be around, for Vivi?

When he was sure at last that he had an image of what exactly he wanted, he willfully called on the fog and held the shape in his mind as he did. He’d respect the limits of the fairy circle, just in case, but that still gave him plenty of room to play with. He willed the building to take the shape he’d decreed for it.

It wasn’t until something akin to lightheadedness occurred, that Lewis realized he had already burned a lot of his energy in getting Arthur out of the cave. But he had to finish this, for Arthur’s sake. Ignoring the draining sensation, Lewis poured everything he had into bidding the fog to make the cabin what he’d envisioned. At last he felt the pulling sensation stop and opened his eyes. He could see the large kitchen and the hallway leading back to the bedrooms. He started to get up to go see it they really had become what he’d made of them, but his arms had no strength.

Lewis’s deadbeat cooed worriedly and he looked up at it. “I’m okay, just tired,” he told it, his voice sounding strange in his own ears, thick and almost gurgling. “Really, really tired. Maybe I should rest for a few before I go get Arthur.”

His deadbeat crooned and Lewis wondered what on earth was wrong with it. He was fine, just worn out from recreating the cabin. All he needed was a little rest. He glanced down and a scream froze in his throat. _**Blood!**_ He was covered in blood, pouring out of massive, gory holes in his chest and stomach and one thigh. _No!_

Lewis couldn’t move, could only stare fixedly at the horror he’d become. He never even felt the blackness swallow him whole.

~*~*~*~*~*~

He came aware all at once, his deadbeat prodding his cheek and chirruping with concern. Blinking heavily, Lewis sat up, wondering what had happened. The cabin, he’d found the cabin and… He glanced around, seeing the interior just as he’d envisioned it, before…

Memory hit him like a freight train… Blood and holes ripped through his body! A frightened sob caught in his throat and he looked down at himself. Nothing. There were no horrific wounds, no blood. Had he just _imagined_ it? Had he been so tired that he’d envisioned his own death-wounds?

Despite his avoidance of it, he’d seen his own body enough to know exactly how it had looked. Stone stalagmites pinning it like needles through a bug. All those holes he’d seen— dreamed— envisioned— they were all where those sharp skewers had ripped through him. Maybe it wasn’t a dream… maybe that was how he looked underneath the illusion of normalcy. Cautiously he prodded his gut where the worst of the holes had been, thinking if it was, he should be able to feel the horrible wounds.

Nothing. He felt normal, solid.

Shaken, he sat there for a moment longer, wondering just what it was he’d seen. Whatever it was, he didn’t like it. He hoped it had only been a vision, but in case it wasn’t, he swore he was never letting himself get that worn out again. He never, ever would wish seeing that horror on anyone, least of all Arthur.

_Arthur!_

How long had he been out? He had to get back to Arthur. Shakily pushing himself to his feet, he found that he could still float above the floor, but he dared nothing else, not right now. Hurrying outside, he glanced up at the sky. Had the sun moved? Yes, it had, he was sure, not by how much, but he was sure it was closer to the trees than it had been before. He had to get back to Arthur.

He’d only just entered the trees when he heard a faint _whump-whump-whump_ sound in the distance. It took him a second to recognize it, but when he did, a fresh wave of fear filled him. There was a helicopter nearby. If they had found the cave, they might be searching the area and they could find Arthur! He had to hurry!

He rushed back through the trees with reckless abandon, heading for the clearing where he’d left his friend. He broke through the trees and into the bright sunlight.

There was no sign of Arthur beneath the tree where he had left him, only the two bags of food lying abandoned. _No!_

Had he been seen and forced to flee? His balance was still not good and he’d never be able to escape any pursuers! He scanned the field of grass and wildflowers frantically. _Where…?_

His deadbeat warbled softly, tugging at his sleeve and pointing out into the meadow. It burbled louder and a flash of movement caught his eyes.  Lewis rushed over, not sure what to expect but fearing the worst.

What he never would have expected was to find Arthur drowsing on his stomach, arms folded under his cheek and wings outstretched on the grass, basking in the sunlight like an overgrown cat. The two deadbeats he had left to guard Arthur were tucked under one of his outspread wings, happily cooing up at him and radiating happiness at him.

Lewis could have laughed with sheer giddy relief. From any distance, Arthur’s green skin and the yellow mottling on his wings blended so well into the grass and wildflowers that he was the next best thing to invisible.

Lewis sat down heavily, so relieved he could barely stand. The deadbeat that accompanied him joined the other two snuggling beneath Arthur’s spread wing.

Arthur stirred sleepily at the movement. He blinked drowsily at Lewis, a soft smile baring the tip of one tiny fang. “Hey, big gu— _uuuuyy.”_ the last word ended on a jaw-cracking yawn.

“Hey,” Lewis greeted, reaching over to brush a stray lock of hair off of Arthur’s forehead. “How are you feeling?”

Arthur rolled onto his side, wing retracting, much to the loud disappointment of the deadbeats. “Better. Still hungry but the crackers are doing the job for the moment. How long before you think I can have some of that beef jerky in there?” He indicated the bags with a lazy wave of one clawed hand, but there was real longing in his voice.

Lewis snorted. Trust Arthur to have investigated the food. At least he’d had the self-restraint to not eat anything but the crackers yet. “Soon. But I have good news. I found us a place to stay. We should be safe there.”

“Mmnn.” Arthur stretched and sat up. “Hey, did you know we’re in the paper? That the reason you bought it?”

“What?” To be honest, he’d forgotten he even bought it. “We are?”

Arthur picked up the paper from where it had been hidden by his other wing. “Not front page news, but still…” He’d folded it open to show a short article in the local section, headlined by enlargements of Lewis and Arthur’s DMV photos.

Lewis took the paper. “ _‘The search still continues for two young men, identified as Arthur Kingsmen and Lewis Pepper, gone missing from the town of Tempo earlier this month. Their last know whereabouts were in the vicinity of Devil’s Tongue, where they were seen stopping for gas. The young woman (identity withheld pending further investigation) who accompanied them was found wandering along the side of the road, accompanied by her dog, in a state the doctors later referred to as traumatic amnesia. The local authorities are convinced the young group fell victim to a wild animal attack, possibly a puma or black bear, both of which are native to the area where they went missing, as the dog and young woman were both bloodied and suffered minor injuries. Anyone with any information on the whereabouts of the two men are asked to call the Tempo police department at 936—’_ ” Lewis stared at the paper for a long moment.

“Traumatic amnesia?” He questioned aloud at last. “If she doesn’t remember the cave— that explains why she didn’t come back for y— us.”

His own memories were hazy past that defining moment of seeing the demon-in-Arthur laughing as it used Arthur’s body to shove him off the cliff, but he could remember hearing Vivi’s anguished scream and knowing she had seen him fall… She had to have known he was— gone. Maybe that was what had caused her memory loss.

Arthur got to his feet, much to the annoyance of the deadbeats. “You need to get her that message. She needs to let the Peppers know that you’re— um— still around.”

Again, no mention of Lance, and Lewis bit his tongue. He would send that note, and make sure she let Lance know the same thing. Arthur had lost enough, he didn’t need to lose his family on top of that.

With a sigh, he scooped a protesting Arthur up and signalled the deadbeats to grab the bags. “Yeah, I promise. But first, you’ve got to see what I found for us!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Extra thanks to Phantom's Lair for some of the better puns in this chapter and to Tristan for helping me not make things sound so stilted. And to everyone who's still reading this train wreck of a story.


	6. Found and Lost

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First off, let me apologize for how long it’s been on this chapter. This one has given me the worst trouble and has gone through more drafts and rewrites than any other, bar none. it took writing it from the ground up twice to manage something that… at least moves the story on. Special thanks to ecto-rp for helping me to figure out how to write the chapter after the first, ruinous draft and phantoms-lair for patiently helping me get through the muddle my thoughts were in and for correcting my atrocious grammar.

Arthur was in the kitchen with a bottle of gatorade in one hand when a solid knocking on the front door of the cabin caused him to yelp and trip over his own tail, the bottle spinning away across the marble floor. He scrambled back to his feet and stared wide-eyed at Lewis, the fluff on the end of said tail standing out like a bottle brush. “Um, big guy?” His voice was barely a whisper. “Y-you didn’t like send the deadbeats out to lead another lost hiker here, did you?”

Lewis was already halfway to the table by the door where he had left the sunglasses he wore to hide his otherworldly eyes. “No. Get out of sight while I deal with whoever it is.” He had led several people lost in the woods to the cabin in the past month, and then helping them back to civilization or whatever search party was looking for them. But no one had ever stumbled upon the cabin or come upon it deliberately, not without a guide. It concerned him. He’d wanted a place to keep Arthur safe, but if people he had not deliberately led here could find the place…

It was no longer safe for  _either_  of them.

Arthur, tail still a brush and wings more than half flared, nodded and scrambled around the corner and out of sight of the door. Lewis nerved himself and called his three original deadbeats— and the fourth that had just shown up by itself a week ago— to him, stationing them just out of sight of the door. He’d give their unwanted visitor the scare of a lifetime and hope that worked to keep this place a safe secret. He opened the door.

And the world stopped in its tracks.

He felt his locket thud painfully where it was hidden in his vest.

Vivi Yukino stood in the doorway, backlit by the sun like something out of a storybook.

She was beautiful, all in blue, eyes as deep as the sea staring into him like she could see right into his soul. If he still breathed all the air would have escaped him. His mouth worked around the syllables of her name, but nothing came out.

She clasped her hands in front of her skirt and grinned at him. It was a little forced and he could suddenly see the shadows under those entrancing eyes and the pinched cheeks. “Hi,” she said with a pale shade of her usual cheer. “Sorry to come knocking on your door out of nowhere, and I know this is going to sound like a really strange question, but would you happen to, um— know any of the stories about these woods? Specifically about people that get lost in here?”

It struck him like a blow. He’d read it all that time ago in the paper, that she had amnesia, but seeing her there, with no recognition in her bright blue eyes, drove it home.

Mystery, crouched small at her feet, whined softly, ears pinned back and his gaze apologetic. Lewis ignored him, riveted on Vivi and still a little sore at him for not coming back to see if he and Arthur had survived… or at least remained.

“P-perhaps—” he managed. “What is it you want to know, Miss—?” It hurt to act like they were strangers, but it was clear he was one to her. His locket, safely hidden in his vest, sent an aching pang through his entire being.

Mystery made a strangled noise, but Vivi didn’t even spare him a glance. “It’s a bit of an odd story. Several people lost in these woods reported  being helped by a strange man and  something like ghosts. Have you heard of anything like that?”

Lewis bit back a disbelieving laugh. Just like Vivi, always looking for ghosts and creatures. What stroke of bitter luck had led her here, to a person she couldn’t remember and another left for dead? “I— I’ve heard of them, yes, but paid no mind to such ridiculous stories.”

Her eyes darkened and he hated that he was the one dimming the life in her gaze, but what else could he—?

A strangely echoey sounding snarl ripped through the air, cutting off whatever Vivi might have said in return.

At her feet, Mystery blossomed into a monstrous fox creature with multiple lashing tails; ears flat to his skull and teeth bared in an enraged growl. One of his tails brutally shoved Lewis aside and another nudged Vivi back from the door as he barged past with a murderous look on his narrow face. He lunged at a cowering green figure trying to merge into the wall behind it, a roar emerging from between long white fangs. “Begone, demon! Have you not stolen  _enough_ from us?!”

Mystery snapped air and Arthur locked up, gold on green eyes riveted on those teeth. Arthur couldn’t even seem to move, terror holding him in place, face a rictus of fear. He made a tiny keening sound through clenched teeth and that was enough to snap Lewis out of his paralysis. “Arthur!” He roared, streaking across the floor in his effort to keep the thing that had been Mystery from inflicting further harm on his friend.

Not fast enough, though. Not nearly fast enough to stop Mystery from using one of his tails to fling something at Arthur, who flinched instinctively. The tiny glass vial shattered on the wall by his head, showering his shoulder and one wing with glass shards and droplets of clear fluid.

Arthur shrieked, red welts forming on his green skin wherever the liquid touched and steam rising from the wounds. Terrified and hurt, he shank back, stepping right onto his own wingtip, and fell hard. Lewis saw nothing but red. Anger boiled out of him and suddenly the air around him blazed. Purple fire roiled in the air, scorching the nearest walls. ** _“ǴÉT ÁẂÁӲ FŔŐḾ ḾӲ FŔíÉŃD!”_**

He reached out to catch one of Mystery’s lashing tails with a blazing hand. It didn’t even look like a hand anymore, only a massive paw of raging purple flame— and Mystery yelped as it seared his fur.

Mystery whipped his tail free and whirled on Lewis, eyes blazing with fury and pain. “Why are you defending that, you fool?” he raged. “That’s not your friend! It’s the beast that killed both of you!” He reared back on his haunches, placing both forepaws on Lewis’s chest and shoving. Taken by surprise, Lewis staggered back, but the sight of Arthur, breathing in panicked little gasps, wounded and cowering where he had fallen, made him brace his feet and shove back, his flame leaving scorch marks on Mystery’s chest.

 _ **“ǴÉT ÁẂÁӲ FŔŐḾ HiḾ!”**_  Lewis bellowed. The air warped with heat around him, and flames licked at the nearest wall. He flung his hand accusingly at Mystery and fire followed, a glob of searing heat that Mystery adroitly dodged. “You left us in that damned cave, sealed us in when Arthur, at least, still needed help! You could have come back!”

Mystery let out a heart-rending howl. “I couldn’t! I sealed that damn cave to keep that thing in there and away from Vivi! It already killed you, what could I do but protect the only one left?!”

“She _wasn’t_ the only one left!” Lewis fumed, throwing another fireball at Mystery. He was slower to dodge it this time and it scored a line of burnt fur on his shoulder. “I was still there, even dead, and you left Arthur in agony and fighting with the monster in his mind!”

“Arthur!” Vivi’s shriek cut through the roar of Lewis fire and Mystery’s snarls.

Vivi had darted past both of them and now crouched beside Arthur, his frightened face cupped in her hands. She was showering tiny kisses on his forehead between his horns and babbling tearfully. “Oh, Artie! I found you! It is you, it is you, it is you! I knew if I just kept looking I would find you again! I knew it, I knew it, I knew it,  _I knew it!!”_ She paused long enough for a breath and to pull a dazed Arthur into one of her infamous bear hugs. “I’ve been looking since they let me out of the stupid hospital! I knew you wouldn’t leave me!”

Lewis froze in place, watching Vivi cradle a shell-shocked Arthur, tears streaking her face and a joyous smile stretching her cheeks out.

Mystery, on the other hand, wasn’t nearly as still, leaping for the pair of them, a tail wrapping around Vivi’s waist and yanking her bodily away from Arthur. “Vivi! Get away from that monster! That’s not Arthur! Arthur is dead!”

Vivi yelped indignantly and brought the flat of her hand down on Mystery’s muzzle in a slap that knocked his glasses off and dazed him just long enough for her to struggle free of his tail and stand in front of a shaking Arthur, arms akimbo and legs braced. She glared defiantly at Mystery.

“Open your eyes, Mystery. This is Arthur! I’d know him anywhere!” She shouted furiously, cheeks red under the tears.

“You open your eyes!” Mystery snarled back, snapping viciously at the air, as if he could rend Arthur from sheer force of will. “Arthur is dead and gone and that’s just a monster wearing his face! I saw his body before I sealed the damned cave that killed—”

He cut off with a yelp as Vivi’s hand shot out and grabbed his ear, nails biting into the flesh and yanking his head to one side in an angle that looked very painful. She glared down at him, glorious in her fury. “Explain now, buster,” Her voice was cold enough to freeze the sun. “Before I neuter you with my bare hands.”

Mystery snapped air in frustration again and Arthur made a soft sound of terror, shaking so badly his wings rattled like old bones. Vivi twisted the ear in her grip until Mystery yipped, trying to shake his head free of her grasp. Vivi wasn’t obliging. “You have until the count of one to start explaining yourself, buddy!” she seethed.

Her obvious rage worked to cool Lewis’s own and he floated past her and Mystery, flames bleeding away like they had never been, to gather up Arthur. Arthur flailed against his hold, still making those tiny, heart-wrenching gasps, like he simply couldn’t get enough air. His eyes weren’t really seeing Lewis, so dilated there was only the thinnest edge of gold between his iris and the dark sclera. One of his hands came up to grip at his shoulder, just beneath the savage scar there, claws biting harshly into his own skin.

“Arthur…” Lewis crooned softly. “Look at me, Arthur. Focus on me. I am right here. You are safe with me.” Lewis repeated the soft mantra as he gently prised Arthur’s hand away from his own, now-sluggishly bleeding shoulder— and in a moment of inspiration, pulled his locket out of his vest, pressing it into Arthur’s hand. Arthur stared at it uncomprehendingly for a moment, but the steady beat of it seemed to give him something to focus on, and he stopped struggling against Lewis’s hold. His tail lashed weakly until it found Lewis’s calf and wound around it so tightly it almost hurt. “That’s good, Artie, just focus on my locket.”

Though it tore at his heart to do so, Lewis turn his back on Vivi, sheltering Arthur from the sight of Mystery. For a moment, he wished for wings of his own, to cape over Arthur and keep him sheltered from everything. Arthur brought his other hand up to cage Lewis’s locket in his clawed fingers, still quaking in every muscle, but his frantic gasps for air were gradually slowing to match the pulse of the locket. Lewis took that as a good sign.

Behind him, in a voice as cold and unstoppable as a glacier, Vivi stated. _“One.”_

Before Mystery could say anything, Lewis turned his head, keeping his body between Arthur and the sight of Mystery. “Hold off on that please.” He rose, cradling Arthur to his chest. “I’d love to hear his explanation for fucking off and leaving us in that damned cave, but not until Arthur is taken care of. So please, for Arthur’s sake, hold off on the interrogation until I get Arthur bandaged up and settled down,  _Vi_ — Ms. Yukino.  _You_  are welcome to make yourself at home while I tend to Arthur.” He turned his head a little more to glare at Mystery. “You stay right where you are or I will rip your tails off and feed them to you. You’ve done enough damage!”

“Wait, please,” Vivi’s voice pleaded. “How is it you know us? How do you know Artie?”

Lewis managed a slight, pained quirk of his lips. “He’s my best friend. The rest I promise to explain, just later. Arthur needs looking after right this minute.”

He caught Vivi’s expression out of the corner of his eye. Her lips were pressed together in a thin, worried line but she nodded. “Arthur comes first. Just… just, when we are done talking this over, can I stay with him for a bit? He… I’ve been so worried about him.” There were tears gathering on her lashes.

Lewis’s heart ached for her. While she might not remember him, she certainly seemed to remember Arthur, and there was no doubt that her concern was genuine. “Y-yeah. When things are settled, you are more than welcome to sit with him. I-I think he needs you here as much as you need to be here.”

Vivi’s breath escaped her in a sigh. “Thank you. He’s— he’s been my best friend since forever.”

Lewis bit back the words that wanted to escape… ‘mine too.’ Vivi didn’t know him and right at the moment it would only confuse her. He only nodded. “There’s cold drinks in the fridge. Feel free to have something. I’ll be back shortly.”

He stepped out of the room, cradling Arthur tight to his chest. Arthur was still shaking, but his breathing had slowed from panicked gasps and his pinprick pupils were fixed on Lewis’s locket like it was the only thing he could hold onto. “Shhhh. I’m here. You are safe with me.” He had no idea if the words were getting through, but—

He sent one of his little deadbeats back into the room to keep an eye of Vivi and Mystery. While he trusted Vivi with Arthur’s life, at the moment, he didn’t dare trust Mystery, not after what he’d done.

He felt the deadbeat’s assent, and then suddenly, he was seeing a doubled image. One was the hall in front of him, leading to the bedrooms and the other was the room he had just left. Vivi was glaring down at Mystery. If Lewis didn’t know better, he would have called her expression murderous. She opened her mouth and it was like she was right there in the hall with him.

“You have some serious explaining to do, mutt.” Her tone was cold enough to chill his non-existent bones.

Mystery’s ears flicked nervously before flattening to his neck. “We need to get out of here, Vivi. You are in grave danger here.” His eyes skated to the hall Lewis had left by.

Okay, now her expression was full-on murderous. She rounded on Mystery, her hands on her hips and lips pressed into a thin, bloodless line. “I’m not going anywhere, buster.” The ice in her tone had intensified to glacial proportions. Lewis thought there should have been frost on the walls. “I have  _had_  it with you. That is our Arthur and you attacked him.  _Attacked him!”_  her voice rose to something just this side of a roar. “I have half a mind to—”

What she had half a mind to do, Lewis would never know, because Mystery cut her off, pacing like a caged tiger. “That is  _ **NOT**_  Arthur! That is the thing that…” he yelped when Vivi loomed over him to grab his ear again.

“Killed him—?” Her voice was poisonously sweet. “That is what you were going to say, wasn’t it? The thing that  _killed_  him…”

Mystery flinched from her grip on his ear. “Vivi—”

“Don’t you ‘Vivi’ me, bucko. You just said Arthur was killed. I think I deserve a very—” she yanked hard on his ear.  _“Very_  thorough explanation.”

Mystery yiked softly, trying to prise his ear from her unrelenting grip. “Ow, Vive _eee—”_ His voice trailed off into a pained whine as she twisted his ear.

Lewis couldn’t help taking a certain malicious pleasure in Mystery’s discomfort. He was still furious at him for attacking a cowering Arthur without provocation. Maybe he thought there was a demon, but Arthur hadn’t been attacking him or anything. Arthur… Lewis glanced down at Arthur, still pale and with his pupils still pinpricks as he almost obsessively turned Lewis’s locket over and over in his fingers. Arthur wasn’t in  _any_ shape to do anything at all.

“Vivi—!” Mystery whined again, jerking his head sideways to free his ear. “We— we have to kill that thing! I’m sorry but Arthur—” He made a wretched sound deep in his throat. “Arthur is _gone.”_

Vivi’s temper flared and she turned her back on Mystery, clenching her fists at her sides, and heaving several deep breaths. Lewis recognized it as a calming exercise. It didn’t seem to be working very well, because her voice was still tight with tension when she spoke.

“I don’t believe you, Mystery! All that effort to find Arthur when I got out of the hospital, you encouraging me while I looked—” Her spine straightened and she shot Mystery a venomous look. “And now, when we’ve found him, you attack him and tell me Arthur  _DIED_  in that cave!” She was shaking with fury and betrayal now, and Lewis wanted to go to her… but she wouldn’t know him. He looked down at Arthur’s form huddled in his arms. And at the moment, Arthur needed him more.

Vivi had turned her back entirely on Mystery now, striding angrily to the kitchen. She picked up the fallen bottle of gatorade carefully and replaced it in the fridge before pulling out a bottle of water and aggressively downing half of it. “I’m not talking to you right now,” she said coldly, scrubbing her sleeve across her mouth. “When the nice gentleman gets back, though, we are having a _long_ talk.” Her glare promised that it wouldn’t be a pleasant one.

Lewis turned his attention back to getting Arthur safely taken care of. After a quick stop in the bathroom to have one of his hovering deadbeats snag the first aid kit, he nudged the door to Arthur’s room open with a foot.

He attempted to settle Arthur on the bed, but even in his distraught state, Arthur was having none of it. The tail still wound around Lewis’s calf tightened and Arthur made a thin, whimpering sound. His hands were still cradling the locket, but his wings groped after Lewis desperately. One of the blisters where the fluid had touched him popped, leaking clear liquid down one wing membrane, but Arthur didn’t even seem to notice it.

Lewis made a soft, shushing sound, carefully taking the edges of Arthur’s wings and folding them back. Arthur only struggled for a moment until Lewis soothingly ran a hand down his back between the wings, He’d done that often enough when Arthur was struggling in the throes of transformation that Arthur almost automatically stopped struggling. He was still whining softly, but Lewis tipped his head up until those frightened eyes met his. “Look at me, Arthur. I’m right here. Not going anywhere.” He smoothed his hand up and down the jumping muscles of Arthur’s back. “You are safe with me. I won’t ever let him hurt you again.”

Arthur shuddered and heaved a great, gasping breath, a little sense coming back into his panicked gaze.

“Good,” Lewis soothed. “I’m going to bandage those hurts, okay?”

Arthur didn’t say anything, but his tensely held wings relaxed slightly, sagging around him.

Lewis sagged a little with relief himself, gently turning the wing to examine the wounds. Whatever Mystery had flung had acted like hot oil, raising hideous blisters where it had struck his shoulders and wings. It had done the worst damage on the thin webs, the fragile skin puckered painfully tight around the swollen blisters. Lewis winced and slathered burn cream liberally over every blister and welt, being especially careful where the one blister had burst with Arthur’s movement. He considered it a good sign when the wing jerked and flinched in his hands, proof both that Arthur was starting to come out of it and that the wounds hadn’t damaged his nerves beyond repair.

He wrapped gauze loosely around the wing and repeated the treatment on his shoulder and then the other wing, He used the whole tube of cream and all the gauze, making a mental note to go get more.  When everything was settled, that was. He wasn’t leaving Mystery alone around Arthur…  _ever_  again.

It took more coaxing to get Arthur to lay down, on the shoulder that had escaped being splattered by the liquid, and Lewis conjured soft pillows to settle Arthur’s wings on, carefully propping them into a natural position. He settled on the edge of the bed, stroking Arthur’s sweat-dampened hair and humming softly.

Arthur’s eyes shifted to track on him, and he wasn’t flinching away, so Lewis considered it a victory. He’d known, in a distant way, that Arthur had been traumatized by the fall as much as Lewis himself had, but he hadn’t thought about those last moments up on the cliff, after the monster in his skin had shoved Lewis over. He remembered Arthur saying that Mystery had grabbed him, and the terrible scarring on his shoulder, now hidden beneath layers of gauze, gave proof of that. Mystery had attacked Arthur, up there on that cliff.

Whether he had meant for Arthur to fall and be skewered like a bug on a pin, Lewis didn’t know. At the moment he didn’t really care either. Resentment burned in his chest. No matter his other sins, Mystery had abandoned them, walling them up in the cave. Lewis remembered the stone that had stung Arthur; the boulder that had blocked the entrance to the cave, and knew Mystery had something to do with it hurting Arthur. Another sin to be added to the tally. It wasn’t just that he had abandoned them, with Lewis— dead— and Arthur horribly wounded, but that he had sealed them in and never come back to see what had become of them. He had to have at least known that there was a chance, with a death that violent, Lewis might have come back. Arthur might’ve too, for that matter.

He hadn’t cared enough to see if they had… remained. Lewis had to control his temper. He had to talk to Vivi. Maybe she couldn’t remember him, but she had come looking for Arthur, and that counted for a lot.

Arthur’s head was sagging against the pillow, though his eyes remained stubbornly open. His fear and panic had worn him out and add that to being hurt, Lewis was a little surprised he was awake at all. He resumed smoothing his hand over Arthur’s hair, letting the steady, familiar motion lull both of them. He needed to calm down as much as Arthur did, before he did something unforgivable to Mystery.


	7. Re'living' History

It took a while for sleep to finally overwhelm Arthur’s efforts to fight it off, but he finally sank into a restless slumber. Lewis carefully draped a sheet over him, and looked down at his heart locket still caged in Arthur’s fingers. He thought about removing it, since he really wanted to show Vivi the photo inside of it, but thought it might be better to leave it with Arthur for the moment. He needed it more.

Lewis rose to his feet and with a thought, set two of his deadbeats to watch, one inside to keep an eye on Arthur and warn him if he woke or had a nightmare and the other to stand guard outside the door. He didn’t trust Mystery not to try something. Right now he couldn’t afford to trust Mystery all all.

Speaking of… Lewis turned his attention back to the deadbeat he’d left stationed with Vivi and Mystery, though honestly, he wasn’t expecting much but stony silence. When Vivi declared she wasn’t talking to someone, she meant it. But instead of the anticipated quiet, he heard Mystery still whining softly. “Vivi— please. You’re _not_  safe here. They— this place is dangerous. Please, listen to me!”

The doubled-vision showed Mystery dancing impatiently around Vivi’s legs, having reverted to his smaller, more familiar form.

Vivi, standing by one of the windows, was ignoring him completely. She was idly fingering a fold of one of the curtains, her creased brow and distant look indicating she was deep in thought. Lewis wanted to just stare at her through the deadbeat’s eyes, drinking in the sight of her like water in the desert. He’d missed her so much.

Mystery, however, wasn’t giving up his efforts to make her leave them again. “Vivi, you’re in danger here. We can come back later, better prepared for— for what we might encounter.”

That got a reaction from her, but obviously not the one Mystery was going for. “I’m  _not_ leaving.”

Mystery shook his head in angry frustration. “Vivi, you know I could just carry you off—”

“I’d  _love_ to see you try.” Her tone was icy and now she turned a glare on Mystery.

“ —But then you would never listen to me again, and I need you to listen now. You can’t trust anything they say.” Mystery’s ears were flat to his skull.”I know you don’t want to believe me, but that’s not him. It can’t be! That was holy water I threw on it! You saw what happened yourself. No demon can bear the touch of holy water! It burns them. If it were Arthur, he wouldn’t have been harmed!” Mystery snapped air again in frustration. “You have to listen to me. You can’t trust that creature, no matter whose face it wears; and I don’t know what kind of hold it has over Lew—”

Vivi whirled around, her face alight with fierce glee. “So we do know him! How? Was he the other person that I can’t remember?” She latched onto the ruff on either side of Mystery’s cheeks. “Tell me the truth!”

Mystery tried to shake his head free of her grasp, but failed. Vivi yanked his furry face closer to hers. “Talk, mutt, or I swear I’ll let Grandma have a go at getting it out of you!”

“Yes,” Mystery said at last with a defeated sigh. “He’s the one you can’t remember. His name is Lewis— Lewis Pepper.”

“Pepper?” Vivi’s brow creased. “Pepper, as in the nice family that kept visiting me in the hospital?” She released Mystery, thinking hard. “Is he related to them?”

Mystery sighed and nodded slowly, “Yes. He— he’s the eldest son.”

“Is he important to us?”

“He was—” Lewis got the impression Mystery was choosing his words carefully. “A member of the team. He and Arthur were best friends… since forever, it seems.” He seemed to be thinking hard on what to say next, and as Lewis didn’t trust him to not tell Vivi more lies about Arthur; he hurried his pace. “He—”

“Don’t you think I should be the one telling her more about myself?” Lewis interrupted, entering the room.

Vivi looked up, relief brightening her eyes. “Mr. Pepper! Please, how is Arthur?”

Lewis leveled a flat stare at Mystery. “Resting for the moment. He’s… not well.” Considering that he could sense Arthur’s troubled sleep through both the deadbeat and the proximity of his locket, ‘not well’ was understating the case.

“Could I see him later, please, Mr. Pepper?” Vivi pled.

“Of course you may.” Lewis couldn’t help but smile lovingly at her. So very worried for Arthur. Without amnesia, she would  _never_ have abandoned them in the cave. “He’ll be very glad to see you. He’s missed you too. And please, call me Lewis. Mr. Pepper is my father.”

Mystery made a strange sound deep in his chest and Lewis transferred his gaze to him warningly. “You are not welcome to visit him. I think you’ve done quite enough harm.” He bared his teeth at the dog in something that wasn’t a smile.

Mystery ducked his head, a whining growl building in his throat. “I don’t know what hold that creature has over you—”

Lewis’s temper frayed a little. “It’s called friendship. You might try it sometime.”

Mystery ducked his head, ears canting backwards. “That’s not you talking.” He actually sounded hurt. “Lewis wouldn’t be so—”

“What? Justifiably angry?” Lewis wasn’t going to fall for his act. He.folded his arms and stared down at Mystery. “Wrong. He would be, because he is. Maybe you think you’re protecting Vivi, but…” He shook his head heavily. “I’m not going to argue right now. I’m too angry to think straight. But I will warn you right now, if you ever try to hurt Arthur again, I will—”

_“That isn’t Ar—”_

“I dare you to spout that lie one more time,” Lewis simmered with barely controlled anger. “I’ve been with him since— well,  _since!_  Do you think I wouldn’t know my best friend?!”

“I think you are seeing what you want to see!” Mystery raged, teeth bared in a snarl. “I tried, but I was too late to save either of you.” That odd, mournful sound came from his mouth again. “I had to save Vivi, don’t you see?!”

Lewis saw purple out of the corner of one eye and realized flames were licking around his clenched fists. Struggling to extinguish them cooled his temper just enough to answer calmly. “I do. But I also see that you couldn’t be bothered to check back once she was safe. Were we just not that important to you? Even though you knew what it would do to Vivi?”

“As much as I’d love to know what’s going on, stop talking around me. I’m right here.” Vivi glared at both of them, small fists propped on her hips

“Vivi—” Mystery began.

“Don’t you Vivi me, bucko. I want an explanation and I want it now.” She leaned down into Mystery’s face. “Start talking.”

Mystery growled, ears flicking nervously. “There were four of us,” he said at last. “You and I, Arthur and Lewis—”

Vivi made a little triumphant sound and glanced sideways at Lewis. He smiled to see it.

“We were searching the cave because of reports of strange occurrences and po— happenings there.” Mystery continued reluctantly. “There— the cave, it made me nervous, but I could not get a… a bead on what I was sensing. Arthur, he— because of his sensitivity, was even more frightened of the cave than his normal— wariness… about supernatural situations. Perhaps we all would have done well to listen to him.”

“And—?” Vivi prompted when he hesitated too long.

“I— failed to sense it in time to prevent something terrible from befalling us.” Mystery looked down at his paws.

Lewis was too angry to buy into the ‘poor me’ posture. “You certainly seemed to know something was wrong enough to leave Vivi and follow us.”

“Because that is where I sensed the most danger!” Mystery snapped, head coming up to fix Lewis with a scathing glare. “I didn’t know what we were walking into.”

“What did we walk into?” Vivi narrowed her eyes at Mystery. “I want the truth.”

Mystery clacked his teeth together with a frustrated sound. “There was— something in the cave. Old, and malicious. I sensed what it was planning just a little too late. I tried, but I couldn’t save anyone.” An eerie, mournful sound began in his throat. “I failed, and all I could do was get you out of there before it got you too.”

“What happened? What did you do?” Vivi was leaning down into Mystery’s face.

“I got you away and sealed the cave.” Mystery looked away, his entire posture one long line of sorrow.

Lewis huffed, glaring down at Mystery. “Why don’t you tell her the truth?”

Vivi’s bright blue eyes peered up at him suspiciously. “What truth?”

Lewis hated seeing that look directed at him, but she couldn’t help it. She didn’t remember him. He doubted she would give his words more credence than Mystery’s, but he had to try. “It… I suppose the best thing to call it was a demon. Arthur, he was vulnerable to it. It got into him, stole control of his body from him. It used his body to— to—” Lewis couldn’t force the words out of his mouth. He’d come to terms with it, really he had, but it was still too painful to say. As much as he’d wanted to reunite with Vivi, this was not at all how he’d imagined it.

“To—” Vivi stepped up to him, laying a gentle hand on his wrist. “To kill you, right? That’s what it did? It killed you.”

Lewis could only stare at her slender fingers on his arm. They were warm and solid and he wanted so much to take them in his own. “I— how?”

Vivi glanced down at the floor. “You don’t have a shadow.”

The afternoon sunlight through the curtains had painted long shadows on the wood floor under her and Mystery, but not of him. Lewis had never even realized…

“The demon took over Arthur and used him to kill you. Then what happened?” Vivi’s tone was soft and sympathetic.

Lewis tore his eyes away from her hand on his wrist with difficulty and stared sourly at Mystery, who was looking oddly at Vivi, his head cocked so far to one side it looked like his neck was broken. “You going to tell her?”

Mystery snapped his head upright and stared back at Lewis. Behind his tiny glasses, his eyes were damp.”I— she couldn’t remember. I couldn’t tell her that! I—” He threw back his head with an agonized howl. “I didn’t want her to  _know._  How could I tarnish her memory of Arthur by telling her a demon stole his body to murder the per—  _someone?!”_ He bought his head back down to stare at Lewis with tormented eyes. “How could I let that ruin her memory of him?! Arthur wouldn’t have wanted that for her!”

Vivi’s hand dropped from Lewis’s arm as she whirled to glare at the remorseful mutt. “Are you seriously  _that_  special? Do you really think I would let what some asshole demon did color my perceptions so badly?”

“Errr… yes?” Mystery’s tone made it sound like a question, confusion filling his face and his ears canted out to the sides.

Vivi rolled her eyes. “Jee-zeus banana-fish, Mystery. Nice to know what you think of my mental facilities.” She stomped over to grab his muzzle and pull his head up. “Listen here, butt-sniffer extraordinaire. Did you honestly think I would hold the actions he did under possession against him?”

Mystery yipped indignantly and pulled his muzzle free. “I didn’t sense the possession until too late! How would you have known any better? You would have thought Arthur—!”

“No, I wouldn’t have.” Vivi said with complete confidence. “I know Arthur. He wouldn’t have hurt anyone, unless it was to protect someone else. And if—” she waved one hand in Lewis’s direction. “Lewis here— was also one of his best friends, Arthur would have never done a fucking thing to hurt him!”

“Vivi—” Mystery tried.

“I’m through. I’m tired of half-answers and evaded questions. I want some real answers. They better start being provided.” Vivi folded her arms and glared down over the rim of the glasses. “And I guess my senses are better than yours, because that was Arthur, not some demon you attacked. So I’d like an answer for that attack as well.”

“No!” Mystery barked. “Vivi, no! That wasn’t Arthur. It couldn’t be! Arthur  _died_  in that cave!”

Too late, it seemed, Mystery realized that was the entirely wrong thing to say. He flinched backwards from the storm of rage brewing on Vivi’s face.

“Funny thing about  _that,”_  Vivi’s voice was sharp enough to cut glass. “I told you I believed Arthur was still alive, even after the evidence the police brought us. I was certain. You…” She poked Mystery’s nose hard with one outstretched finger. “You didn’t even try to convince me otherwise. You said that you couldn’t remember what happened in the cave, so there was a chance he was still alive. And yet, here he is, very much alive, and now you’re trying to tell me he’s dead. Which is the lie and which is the truth? Because right now, I’m inclined to believe everything you’ve ever told me is a lie!”

Lewis wisely decided not to say anything. He didn’t want her ire turning on him. She was magnificent in her controlled rage and Mystery was obviously enough cowed by it.

Mystery went belly-down on the floor, stub of a tail tucked and ears pressed flat to his neck. “Vivi—”

“I’d better start hearing some truth outta you.” Viv wasn’t giving an inch.

Neither, it seemed was Mystery, who only whined and tried to press himself even further into the wooden floor.

Lewis sighed and ventured carefully, “Maybe I can start and he can fill in some of the blanks—?” It seemed a wiser course of action than letting Mystery fill the silence with more accusations to fling at Arthur.

Vivi turned to face him a smile as bright as the dawn breaking on her face. “I think that sounds like a wonderful idea— Lewis, wasn’t it?”

Those three words caused a sick feeling to ripple through Lewis’s entire being, but he covered it with a pleasant smile. “It is. Why don’t you have a seat and I’ll fill in what I can for you.”

Mystery’s head came up and he whimpered softly, but said nothing, too wary of invoking another display of Vivi’s temper.

Vivi sat on the couch, sunlight from the window behind her haloing her blue hair. Her smile was eager, like a child promised a treat and Lewis’s stomach sank at the thought of making that expression fade with the truth of what had happened in the cave. But she deserved to know the truth and she would thank none of them for trying to hide it from her.

Lewis took a seat opposite her on one of the purple-velvet wingback chairs. “So, like Mystery told you, the four of us were going to explore a cave. You… I don’t know how much you remember, but you had researched a lot of the paranormal tales about the area, and the cave seemed to be the focal point of all of them. Just inside the entrance, Arthur— He got even more spooked than usual. He said the place had a really bad vibe to it. He tried to get us to leave, but didn’t try again after you reminded him that that’s what we were there for, to deal with the problem before someone else got hurt— or worse.”

Lewis closed his eyes, seeing the dank, green-tinted walls of the place in his mind again. “Just inside the entrance, the tunnel split into two, one leading up and the other going down. Arthur and I took the high road and you and Mystery were supposed to head down. But Mystery followed us instead.”

“I told you, I sensed more danger the way you two were going!” Mystery protested.

“Didn’t do us a whole lot of good, now did it?” Lewis didn’t open his eyes to look at the dog, instead reliving the night in the cave. “Our path took us up a narrow tunnel, that widened out into a cliff overlooking… what looked to be a sea of stalagmites in an eerie greenish mist that almost seemed to glow. Arthur was even more nervous, but I— I went right up to the edge, trying to see if there was a source for the luminescence. He warned me to stay away from the edge, but—”

Lewis swallowed hard, even though he no longer had a gorge to rise. “Artie— he made this s-strangled sound, and when I turned to see, there was— a hand against my chest, shoving me backwards and over the l-lip.” Lewis shivered, trying hard not to remember the feeling of falling, or the sudden bright shock of pain that brought it all to an abrupt end.

“I didn’t remember it til I  _c-came back_ , but I saw his face. Half of it was terrified and crying and the other half… it was tinted green, and laughing. I think I heard you scream and I know I saw or imagined you… spattered with blood, but for a time, there was nothing.” Lewis trembled again, knotting his fingers together in his lap.

Warm fingers brushed over his and surprised, Lewis opened his eyes. Vivi had scooted forward to the edge of her seat and leaned forward, her arm outstretched to touch him. “I don’t remember any of this, but for what it’s worth, I’m sorry for dragging up such things.”

Lewis manage a shaky smile and patted her fingers. “No. While I’m glad you can’t remember— that part, at least— you need to know what happened.”

Vivi smiled at him, and even though he knew she couldn’t remember him, it was comforting. Lewis gave her another wobbly smile and tried to compose himself to remember his own personal hell. “W-when I— woke up, I guess? I was angry, because all I could remember was— was Arthur pushing me. But that’s when I saw—” God, it hurt to remember, and he didn’t want to describe Arthur’s horrific injuries to her. “Arthur had fallen too. I— I— it was bad. All of the anger went out and all I could think was that— the cave had killed him  _too.”_

Lewis thought idly if he could still breathe, he’d be close to hyperventilating now. The memory of Arthur impaled like that lurked in the back of his brain and made his whole being feel sick. “I thought he was dead too, until I was holding him and he gasped. He— he was bleeding all over the place and— and hurt _so_  bad, but he was aware of the thing in his head and was trying to get away— to keep it from— h-hurting me.” The next part was even harder to put into words. “He c-convulsed and then for a minute it wasn’t him, but the thing that— that killed me. But it reached for me and then Arthur was back, fighting t-to keep it away from me.” Lewis had to fight to keep himself from shaking. It still felt as fresh as when it happened. The strange echoing voice emerging from Arthur’s bloody lips and the acid green eye staring back at him… he’d never forget that horrifying moment. And then, Arthur had been back, in horrible pain from his injuries, but still fighting with the monster in his mind to protect Lewis.

“Arthur would do that,” Vivi said with a watery smile, reaching out to squeeze his hands again. “He always thinks of others first.”

Lewis gave her a grateful smile. “Yes. He really does.”

Mystery made a disgruntled sound, but said nothing. Vivi side-eyed him, but when he remained silent, turned her attention back to Lewis. “And…?”

“He spent most of the time unconscious or delirious, fighting with the thing in his mind. He was healing, but at the same time, his body was changing into what you saw.” Lewis said carefully, turning his eyes onto Mystery who was squirming in place, like he wanted to say something, but he kept his muzzle shut. “He was— hurt— for a long time. But eventually he came to his senses…” Lewis intensified his glare on Mystery. “He remembered you attacking him, there on the cliff.”

 _“I was trying to save him!”_ Mystery burst out. “I was too late to save you, but I could have saved him if I could have taken the point of infection! But—” He whined mournfully and shook his head. “The creature pulled him free of my grasp and stepped backwards, off the edge. It killed him! I saw the awareness in Arthur’s eyes as he fell. The monster left him to  _die!”_

Rage bubbled up in Lewis’s chest again. “You left him to die! You sealed us into that damned cave. You never came back, even though you knew there was a chance at least our spirits lingered! You could have come back!”

“I had to protect Vivi! If I had let that demon out of the cave, it might have come after her!”

“I can protect myself, Mystery, or did you forget that?” Vivi’s tone was cold.

“You weren’t yourself! You were dazed and almost catatonic! I had to herd you out of there like a child!” Mystery scowled, ruff bristling.

Lewis might have said something else in his rage at the dog, but a frantic bid for attention from the deadbeat he had left with Arthur cooled his temper. A moment later, a panicked scream rang from the hallway.

With a curse, Lewis took off down the hall. Vivi was hot on his heels but he didn’t have the attention to spare her. Through his locket, he could sense Arthur’s panic and confusion, woken from a nightmare and in pain.

Lewis bolted past the deadbeat he’d left to guard the room, hurrying to Arthur’s bedside, where Arthur was trying to thrash free of the sheets and pillows. The bandages on his wings seemed to be adding to his panic, because his wings kept flexing against the binding of the gauze.

“Arthur!” Lewis rushed to untangle Arthur, helping him sit upright and catching his chin to turn Arthur’s wild-eyed gaze his way. “Shh— Arthur… I’m right here. You’re okay. It was a nightmare.”

“Lew…?” Arthur’s voice was soft, almost childlike in its sleepy confusion. “I t-think I had a nightmare, but I was dreaming about Vivi before that…” He hesitated, licking chapped lips. “Hurts…”

“Shh—” Lewis soothed, smoothing back Arthur’s damp hair.

“Artie—?” Vivi’s voice trembled a little. She stepped up beside Lewis and sat on the edge of the bed, reaching out to touch Arthur’s cheek. “Hey, there.”

Arthur’s breath caught in his throat and he lifted one hand from the locket to touch hers on his face. “Vi? Am I still dreaming?” His voice was still soft and thick with sleep.

Vivi’s voice caught on a sob. “No. I’m here. I finally found you.” Tears welling in her eyes, she leaned forward to press a tender kiss on his forehead, right between his horns. “I’m right here.”

 _“Vivi—”_  Arthur hiccupped a sob and hauled Vivi into a hug with desperate strength. “I thought we’d never see you again!” He buried his face in her shoulder, his breath hitching.

Vivi went willingly into the hug, tears spilling down her cheeks and a huge grin stretching her lips. “I’d’ve kept searching til I found you. You can’t get rid of me that easily!”

Lewis couldn’t help the huge grin on his face. Maybe they were still a little battered and broken around the edges, but they were all together again.

A white streak darted from the doorway, shaking off the deadbeat trying to restrain it. Mystery dodged past Lewis and sprang for the bed, snatching the forgotten locket from Arthur’s lap in his teeth. He kicked off the bed, forcing a frightened wail from Arthur, who recoiled violently, and bolted for the doorway, shedding his smaller form as he went.

“I’m  _sorry!”_ His voice trailed in his wake. “You’ll forgive me later when I’ve freed you from the demon’s influence!” 

Then he was gone in a flare of reddish flames.


	8. Anchor Away

Lewis hadn’t expected it to  _hurt._  The sudden sense of disconnection sent him to his knees, a pain that was both physical and spiritual making his head reel. He knew he made a startled sound, but it felt like he was suddenly stretched to his limit and he was at a distance from the world.  There was a roaring in his ears that he might have thought was his heartbeat— if he still had one.

Three streaks of magenta, his little deadbeats, zoomed into the room, converging on and vanishing into his chest. He could feel them only faintly and it frightened him.

 _ **“Lewis!”**_  Arthur’s shout came dimly to him and he could only watch Arthur struggle free of the bed and stumble to his side, still reeling from the blow to his very self. Arthur caught his arm, and Lewis barely felt his touch, even though he could see the fabric of his shirt compressed in that desperate grip. “Are you alright?”

“Arthur…” Even through the surf-like roar in his ears, his voice sounded strange, thin and distorted. “Artie…” he tried again.

Vivi was suddenly at his other side, hoisting his arm over her shoulder. Her face was incandescent with rage, but her hands were sure, even though he could barely feel their touch. “Help me get him to the bed,” she told Arthur, her voice calm and far too controlled.

Lewis wasn’t able to help much, but between the two of them they were able to maneuver him to sit on the edge of the bed. Vivi caught his face between her hands and forced him to look her in the face. “I swear, I’m going to kick Mystery’s butt from here to next week. What was he thinking?! That was your anchor he stole, wasn’t it?”

Lewis wanted to enjoy the feel of her hands on his face again, but like Arthur’s touch, it felt distant and unreal. “I— I think so. I know I feel— more  _real_ — with it.” He remembered knowing about spectral anchors from before, but somehow it hadn’t really occurred to him how much he needed the locket now.

“Yeah, that’s your anchor. I don’t know what fuzzface thinks he’s doing, but we have to get it back to you.”

Arthur made a distressed noise, his wings flexing under the bandages. “He— he thinks I’m— not  _me_. He’s trying to save you from me.”

Lewis struggled to focus, worried by the tone in Arthur’s voice. “Don’t need saving.” He reached for Arthur, who caught his hand in a desperate grasp. It felt a little more real to him now and Lewis clung to that feeling, wrapping his other hand over Arthur’s.

 _“Dammit,_  Mystery! When I catch you I’m giving grandma a fox-skin rug for her birthday!”

“What can we do?” Arthur asked worriedly, sitting on the bed next to Lewis.

“Find him before he does something even stupider than usual.” Vivi’s voice was flat.

“W-what’s stupider than usual?” Arthur asked.

Lewis leaned into Arthur, who spread one of his wings around him, wincing at the pull on his blisters, but still wrapping it tightly around Lewis. He didn’t like how tired he was feeling, because the last time he’d been that worn-out, it had been  _bad._  He winced at the memory. He hadn’t dared let himself get that tired again. He never wanted Vivi or Arthur to see the horror he’d become.

Vivi didn’t answer Arthur’s question, instead crouching in front of Lewis and holding his head steady between both of her palms. “Hey— hey, focus on me, okay?”

Lewis struggled to obey.

Arthur had all but wrapped himself around Lewis, tail and bandaged wings clinging with fierce strength. Lewis liked it. Arthur’s touch was somehow more substantial than Vivi’s; it made him feel more there— more grounded.

With an effort, Lewis dragged his wandering attention back to Vivi.

“That’s better,” she coaxed. “Now, listen, he can’t keep your anchor hidden from you, because it is a part of you. He can hide it from me, but never from you. I know the magic he used messed you up, but you have to concentrate. Tell me what you can sense from your anchor.”

Oh. Lewis closed his eyes and groped blindly after the feel of his locket. It was hard, but having Arthur and Vivi nearby seemed to help. “Dark,” he decided at last. “Dark— and wet and red…  _Oh my god,_  he has it in his mouth!  _Ick.”_

Arthur managed a raspy laugh near his ear.

“No, that’s good,” Vivi was quick to interject. “It means he’s still running away with it. He hasn’t stopped to try anything yet.”

“What can he do that won’t hurt Lewis?” Arthur asked, fingers tightening around Lewis’s. “I mean he doesn’t seem to want to hurt him, just—”

“Free him from the influence of the demon— which he’s not under.” Vivi sounded concerned and Lewis opened his eyes to see her biting her lower lip. “I hate to say it, but I don’t think Mystery’s really thinking straight. I mean, I know I’m missing chunks of my memory and one of those is apparently anything to do with you, but Mystery saw the whole thing go down in the cave and seems pretty set that—”

“I’m a monster,” Arthur finished morosely. “Maybe he’s not wrong.”

“You shoosh your facehole!” Vivi snapped. “I knew it was you the very first moment I saw you, no matter what you look like now. For someone who claims to have been around for centuries, he’s jumping to conclusions, when he knows things aren’t always what they seem.”

Arthur looked doubtful, so Lewis squeezed his hand. “Not a monster. I’ve been there since we fell. There’s no monster here. Just a ghost and a—” Lewis had to pause, trying to get his muddled thoughts to come up with something that wouldn’t add to Arthur’s dismay over what he’d become.

“A winged greenbean!” Vivi piped up with a lopsided grin.

Both their heads swiveled to face her at the same time, like they were on pivots.

 _“What?”_  She looked mulish. “I always called Artie a stringbean when he wouldn’t eat enough. I swear I remember someone else saying the same thing too, so it wasn’t just me. Now he’s green, but still skinny as ever, so he’s a greenbean.”

Lewis blinked slowly. “You… are a dork,” he pronounced carefully. He’d been the first one to call his friend a stringbean, chiding scrawny Arthur to accept the plates of food Mama had always been trying to feed him. Vivi had picked it up from him, but seeing that she couldn’t remember him at all, she clearly thought she’d been the author of the nickname.

Arthur tilted his head. “You’re both dorks,” he declared. “And we have more important things to worry about. Mystery doesn’t seem to want to hurt Lewis, just… free him. So he can’t use an exorcism or do anything to damage his anchor. What will he think to try? Vivi, this is your area of expertise, not mine.”

Vivi thought for a moment. “The first think I can think that he might try would be a purifying fire. It’s meant to burn out corruption or taint, so if he thinks that  _‘the demon’_ is manipulating Lewis, that might be the first thing he’ll try.”

“What will he need? That might give us a clue where he’s headed.”

“Just basic Elements. Water, to wash away, earth to ground the spirit, fire to burn it away and air to sweep away the ashes of the fire.” Vivi chewed the inside of her cheek. “The anchor is gold, so that’s a point in favor of purification. In some spells, gold is an element that stands for healing, and If he’s trying to heal you of the control he thinks you are under, he’ll want to use that association.”

“Okay, so— someplace where he can get hold of all four elements.” Arthur’s brow scrunched up in thought. “Anything else? I mean does it have to be on a what-do-you-call-’em— leyline or holy ground or anything?” His wings tightened briefly around Lewis.

“I don’t think is has to be, but I have a feeling that he’ll consider holy ground a better choice. All the better to get rid of the ‘demonic’ control—” Vivi’s face settled into a scowl. “Why does he have to be so—  _ **urrgh!”**_

The talk of holy ground sparked something in Lewis’s sluggish thoughts. He’d made a point of exploring the local area; both to keep Arthur safe and to find any trouble spots before something happened. It had saved them some issues, though there was always something to contend with, be it their unseen, but definitely not unfelt, neighbors, or simply the odd lost hiker Lewis had led to safety.

“There’s— there’s a small church and graveyard, about four or five miles from here,” Lewis stated carefully, cursing at how hard it was to pull himself together. Once he got his anchor back, he was never letting it out of his sight again. “It’s on a bluff, by a stream, really far from any real roads. It looks like it’s been abandoned for years, though—”

“Doesn’t matter. So long as it’s never been deconsecrated, it’s still holy ground. Chances are, that’s where he’ll go. I know his fleabitten butt can sniff out places like that.” Vivi rose to her feet, pacing in a small circle. “If there’s a stream, that’s water. Up on a bluff would be both air and earth too.”

Lewis remembered the swirl of flames Mystery had vanished in. “And he’s already got the fire.”

“We need to get there, and quick.” Vivi declared. “I can’t promise he won’t do something boneheaded if we don’t stop him.”

“Um, Vivi—” Arthur’s voice was hesitant and his tail lashed restlessly against Lewis’s leg. “Wouldn’t it be— _better_  if he finished the purification ritual? I mean, he’d maybe be convinced that— that I’m not really a demon?”

Lewis could see the desperate desire in Arthur’s eyes; the hope that Mystery’s spell would prove he was still himself, still Arthur Kingsmen and not the demon, despite the shape he now wore. Lewis tightened his hand on Arthur’s.

Vivi shook her head, lips pursed. “It won’t prove anything to him; not now, not in the state of mind he’s in. He’ll think that the demon has done more than just control, especially if he attacks Arthur and we try and defend him. He’ll— I hate to say it, but he’ll probably try a more drastic approach… and that could be really bad.”

Arthur shuddered.

Lewis knew what would be the next thing out of his mouth and it was the very last thing he wanted him to think— or Vivi to hear. “Not your fault,” he reminded Arthur gently, before he could go back down that self-destructive mental path again.

Vivi stopped her pacing and hurried over to cup Arthur’s face and turn it up to hers. “Hey, you listen to me right now, Artie. I think Mystery— he’s really not thinking clearly at all right now. I think the cave, everything that I don’t remember but that he does— it hurt him too. Maybe it’s that he saw you both fall, one to a monster that stole your body from you, and one— in a weird kinda way— to himself. From what he said earlier, he’s blaming himself for not being able to save both of you.”

Arthur shivered again and drew a hitching breath before nodding. “Okay— okay, so we have to stop him. But even if we do, how do we stop him from trying again, if he’s that messed up?”

“You leave that part to me. I’ll figure something out even if it means siccing grandma on him.”

Lewis had opened his mouth to respond when he felt the tiniest bit of strength trickle back in. He forgot what he was going to say, concentrating on feeling for his connection to his anchor. It was stronger. Still too far away from him, but no longer stifled under the aura of Mystery’s magic. It was enough to clear his head a bit and he straightened up a little in Arthur’s hold.

The little deadbeat that had tried to restrain Mystery was still on the floor where it had been tossed aside. Lewis concentrated on calling it to him. It was the stray spirit that had attached itself to him. The others had been forced to retreat into him with the theft of his locket, but this one was just a tiny bit more autonomous, it seemed.

Warbling sadly, it rose into the air unsteadily and came to him. He could feel its remorse for being unable to stop Mystery. He let go of Arthur’s hand with one of his and cradled it close, reassuring it silently that it was not to blame. He tried feeding it a little of the strength that had returned to him and watched as it steadied. “I can lead us to the bluff. Vivi, did you bring the van? We’ll need something faster than our own feet for this.”

“I did, but it’s parked down by where the highway divides. We hiked the rest of the way in.”

“Close enough. Let’s go.”

Arthur hesitated. “Maybe I shouldn’t go. I might only make him do something. It’s me he has it in for.”

Vivi shook her head firmly. “ _Nuh-uh,_  buster. We all go in together. I’m not risking you out of my sight again.”

“Vivi—” Arthur’s protest was shut off by Vivi clamping a hand over his mouth. “No. You are coming with. There is no debating this.”

Lewis tried to push himself to his feet. It didn’t work so well, and he had to lean rather heavily on the shoulder Arthur hastily shoved under his arm. “Vivi’s right, Arthur. We need to stay together. What if he stole my locket as a distraction and decides to come back and finish off the so-called demon once and for all?”

Arthur swallowed hard and went a sickly shade of pale-green. “Y-you think he would?”

“I don’t think I would put it past him, as screwed up by this he is.”  Vivi shook her head. “We’re all damaged by what happened that night, but I honestly never realized just how hard it must have been on him too. I lost my memory, and while I’m not forgiving him just yet for lying to me about things, he was trying to keep me safe and maybe from going a little mad in the search for you, Artie.” She took Lewis’s other arm and began to steer them toward the door.

Arthur ducked his head. “I— We should have— would have contacted you sooner, but I—”

“It doesn’t matter now. I found you,” Vivi corrected. “We are back together, and right now, that’s what matters. That and getting back your friend’s anchor.”

Lewis winced again. There it was again; the reminder that she didn’t remember him at all. Everything between them was lost.

Arthur understood. His arm around Lewis tightened. “Let’s go then.”

Lewis’s remaining deadbeat cooed softly, draping itself around Lewis’s neck. He took some comfort from it.


	9. Into the Fire

It took longer than any of them wanted to get to the van. Vivi scowled as she stumbled over a root. “If you’re going to live out here, we need to invest in a better way of reaching this place; a nice driveway or something.”

Arthur looked up from helping Lewis, who hadn’t the energy to float, over the same root. “Um, Viv, I think that would defeat the purpose of hiding away in the woods. You know, so great big bat-winged green thing doesn’t freak everyone out?”

Vivi waved a hand irritably.  _“Pssh._  Look at me, I’m not freaking out.”

“Because you’re you.” Arthur snarked back.

“Oh, shoosh.” Vivi returned, digging for the keys in the pocket of her skirt as they broke through the trees. “That reminds me, we need to let Lance know you’re okay. I mean there was the note, but, I mean, he really needs to know.” She pointed with the hand holding the keys to a familiar van parked on the side of the road.

“What note?” Arthur squinted suspiciously at her as she unlocked the back door of the van and he helped Lewis climb up and slide over to the middle of the seat so he could see where they were going.

“The one you sent to me, silly.” Vivi had unlocked the back of the van and was rummaging in her chests of magical supplies and relics, her tongue sticking out of the corner of her mouth. “I mean you didn’t sign it and your handwriting has actually  _improved,_  but it said you had been hurt and were recovering and asked me to let Lance know. You also asked me to let the Pepper family know that Lewis here was _“still around, in spite of evidence to the contrary,”_ and man, let me tell you did that one get me some strange looks!”

“Vivi, I didn’t send you any note.”

“I sent it.” Lewis confessed, petting his little deadbeat’s head absently. “You were so worried about letting Vivi and my folks know that we were still—  _around_ , but you never once mentioned Lance. Did you think he wouldn’t be worried sick too?”

Arthur ducked his head, lips pressed tight. “It doesn’t matter now, does it? We have more important things to worry about, like getting your anchor back.”

“It does matter!” Vivi huffed, emerging from her excavating with her hands full of an assortment of esoterica, including a small vial that glowed with an eerie red luminescence. “And we’ll be talking about it later, like it or not, you can bet your scrawny green butt on that!” She hip-checked the rear door closed and shifted things into the crook of one arm until she had freed a hand to pull the keys out of the lock.

“Think fast!” She chucked the keys at Arthur, who yelped, but snagged them out of the air almost instinctively,

“Vi—” he protested, keys dangling loosely from one claw. “I can’t drive. Not like this!”

“You can. I need my hands free to work on something to deal with Mystery. And he’s too weak to drive.” She cocked a thumb at Lewis as she clambered into the passenger seat. “You always were the best driver. I trust you.”

Arthur shut his mouth with a snap, blinking. He glanced back at Lewis, and then once more at Vivi, before nodding firmly and climbing into the driver’s side door. It took him a moment to arrange his bandaged wings and tail so they were out of the way, but at last he swallowed hard and inserted the key into the ignition. He turned it and the van rumbled smoothly to life. “Here goes nothing.”

Gingerly he pressed the ball of his elongated foot on the gas pedal, flinching a little when the van responded by gliding forward back onto the road. “W-which way, big guy?”

Lewis indicated the division in the road. “Left. It’s east of here.”

Arthur nodded, his hands clenched tight around the steering wheel, and a little more confidently, pressed on the gas.

Between giving Arthur more directions, Lewis watched Vivi curiously. She had a cloth spread over her knees and three slips of vellum that were inked with black kanji and other sigils he did not know. He knew some of the kanji though, Vivi had taught him and Arthur the most basic of wards long before they had taken to the road in search of the paranormal.

As he watched, Vivi picked up the tiny vial and stared at it for a long moment, brow creasing in a frown. Finally she sighed heavily and picked up one of the wards. One at a time, she wrapped each strip around the softly-glowing bottle, muttering something under her breath that might have been japanese, but it didn’t sound like any of the words Lewis knew. Each time, the red glow of the vial dimmed a little more, and the sigils and kanji started glowing with the same clear ruby color.

At last she settled the slips back onto the cloth on her lap and let out her breath in a long exhale. Her forehead was beaded with sweat, but her fingers were steady as she rolled each ward into tiny little scrolls and inserted them each into small two-part metal capsules with a loop on one end, screwing the two halves together tightly. She lit the stub of a red candle with the van’s cigarette lighter and carefully dripped wax over the seals of each of the tubes. Finally, she threaded each one onto a leather thong that she knotted to make a necklace out of.

Lewis accepted the one she handed to him. The metal was smooth and cold and a dull gray-silver that he knew without asking was cold iron. Mystery wasn’t hurt by it, but his magic did nothing absolutely against it. “What did you just do? That wasn’t like any warding I’ve ever seen you do, even though I recognized some of the symbols.” He slipped it over his head, a strange tingle passing through his entire being.

Vivi held up the small glass vial, now much dimmer than before, studying it contemplatively. “This is a sample of Mystery’s magic, taken directly from his  _Hoshi no Tama._  I used it to ward him from ever coming near us.”

Arthur gulped. “Vi, he’s really, really not gonna like that.”

“Maybe— but maybe he needs to learn this lesson the hard way, He’s not thinking rationally right now. How else do you explain his actions? He’s convinced you’re a  _‘demon’_ , yet he leaves me alone with you— after weakening the only other person there who might protect me from said demon.”

 _“Would_  protect you,” Lewis muttered. He hated that she didn’t know him well enough to know that he would walk barefoot through hell for her. “And Artie’s not a demon.”

“I know that and you know that, but Mystery— he’s not playing with a full deck at the moment. He needs something, a— a shock to the system to make him realize just what he’s doing.” Her face was grim as she slipped one of the pendants over her own head. “Maybe this will be enough to do it.”

Arthur looked down at his hands on the wheel briefly before returning his attention to the narrow dirt road they were now following. “I— I won’t deny that I’m terrified of him. For what he did and what he tried to do. But— It’s still Mystery. I can’t like this plan entirely, Vivi.”

Vivi sighed, reaching over to drop the last necklace over Arthur’s head, delicately keeping it from blocking his vision or tangling on his horns. She smoothed his hair back into place once it had settled around his throat, the metal looking bright against his green skin. “To be honest, neither do I. I think—” she heaved another sigh. “I think it’ll scare him, and I hate to do it in the state of mind he’s in right now. But it can’t go on like this.”

Lewis lifted his head. His locket was close now and the proximity made him feel so much better than he had since the moment Mystery had stolen it. “We’re close,” he warned. “The road’s gonna fork up ahead and there’s one that’s barely even a goat track; that’s the one we need. Take it as far as the van can go, but we’ll never make it up the bluff in the van. We’ll have to go the rest of the way on foot. It won’t be an easy climb.”

“Before you ask, no, I can’t fly us up there.” Arthur shuddered. “I don’t even know if I can, much less  _want_  to be that far off the ground.”

Vivi stuck out her lower lip some but didn’t argue with him.

It wasn’t very much farther before the van couldn’t push on. Arthur grunted with frustration and killed the engine. “Looks like we’re hoofing it from here.” He shoved the door open, wincing at the sound of underbrush scratching against the paint, and clambered out. He hurried to pull the side door open for Lewis, but Lewis did it himself. Now that they were closer to his locket, he felt more like himself, if still a little weak. He did accept the arm Arthur held out to help him out though.

Vivi had already disembarked and was squinting at the path. “With brush this deep he won’t see us coming, that’s for sure.”

Arthur nodded. His face was still pale, but he gamely started forward. His toe-talons actually helped in terrain this rough, allowing him to grip the uneven ground. He had folded his wings as close as he could, but branches kept snagging at the bandages and causing him to wince at the tugs on his wounds.

Lewis found he could float now, and drifted upwards so he was no longer tripping on everything. He helped Arthur untangle a wing before drifting over to Vivi. “Any idea what we’re going to do when we get there?”

Vivi pursed her lips. “Arthur and I will draw him out. He can’t touch us unless we take the wards off and neither of us are going to do that. You can go intangible and go after the locket. He can’t set a ward directly on your anchor, not if he intends to purify it, so expect some barrier between you and it. There might be other wards, and you’ll have to watch out for those. Even if you can’t touch them, there are ways to disrupt them. You can find ways to break them if you try.”

Lewis nodded. She hadn’t lost her ability to take command with her memories. “I trust your wards but are you sure he can’t hurt you?”

Vivi measured a space out from her body, not quite the length of her arm. “He won’t even be able to get close enough to try. That’s what I used the sample for. The wards I made act to repel his magic alone. And since his magic is inherent, there is no way around it for him. Even if he stops using his magic, because he is inherently a magical creature, he cannot pass the ward.”

Arthur had obviously been listening in, and fingered the tiny capsule around his neck. “I-it won’t hurt him, will it?”

Vivi’s face softened and she reached out to sock Arthur lightly in the arm. “No. I promise. It just won’t let him get near.”

“G-good.” Arthur relaxed a little.

“Silly,” Vivi chided. “Even scared to death, you worry for him.”

Arthur’s cheeks flushed a darker shade of green and he ducked his head. “He’s  _still_  Mystery. And he’s just as screwed up as the rest of us. We all suffered because of that damned c-cave. I’m gonna be scared of him, no matter what, because all I remember is that moment up there where he came for me. Maybe he didn’t mean for me t-to f-fall, but I did, and that’s not gonna go away that easy for me.” He rubbed the back of his neck, mindful of his claws. “But, I think— maybe— the reason he’s acting so crazy, trying to a-attack me and then running away with Lewis’s locket— is cause he’s all scared and messed up.” Arthur ducked his head. “That’s a feeling I know pretty well. He’s running scared, not only because he’s messed up in the head by what happened, but because he messed up too and he knows it. He lied to you, and he knows you don’t forgive lies easily.”

Vivi’s expression softened and she reached over to take Arthur’s hand in her own. “I know. We’re all of us messed up.” She glanced over at Lewis. “Even me. I’m missing memories— and I’m going to guess they are pretty danged  _important_ ones from the way you keep looking at me like you do.”

Lewis didn’t even know he could blush anymore, much less turn so bright a red he felt like he was glowing. “U-Umm, w-well…” he stammered helplessly.

Arthur looked up at him with a lopsided smile. “Big guy, she’d’ve had to been blind not to notice you mooning at her.” A surprisingly cheerful chuckle escaped him.

Lewis ducked his head sheepishly. He hadn’t even realized he’d been doing it. “Sorry,” he muttered.

Vivi hopped over a tangle of twisted roots and struck a pose. “Don’t be sorry. If I had someone as awesome as me, I’d be all love-struck too.”

The teasing worked to break the embarrassment Lewis was feeling and he laughed. Vivi’s sense of humor was matched only by her exuberance.

“Careful, Vi. Your ego gets any bigger and there won’t be room for the rest of us on this bluff.” Arthur poked back, his grin widening enough to show the tips of his fangs.

“Pfft.” Vivi waved a hand in the air, but as quickly as she had switched into joking, she flipped back to the serious leader. “I think I see a break in the trees ahead. Lewis, now would be a good time to find a place to go in. Stay hidden until Artie and I provide the distraction you’re gonna need.”

“Gotcha,” Lewis nodded, and drifted away from the two of them. He knew he could trust Vivi to protect Arthur.

He hadn’t gone far enough to not overhear what Vivi said to Arthur in an undertone. “That’s another lie Mystery’s got to answer for. He… he told me that Lewis was a friend and nothing more.”

Lewis’s anger burned again at those words. Why would he have lied to her about that; about what she and Lewis had been, about what they had meant to each other? Mystery might have been as fucked up as the rest of them, but Lewis wasn’t going to be above scorching a few tails for that little tidbit… and for attacking Arthur.

He circled around the church, hoping that this close to his anchor, he would feel strong enough for that fire. Spotting a mostly unbroken stained-glass window, he sent his remaining deadbeat to peer inside, cautioning it silently to remain unseen. It nodded and drifted soundlessly up to the window. In a moment, Lewis was seeing what it saw in that strange sense of double vision from before. The interior of the tiny church had been swept clean, the broken pews shoved against the walls to clear the stone floor. What had been the altar had been pushed to the center of the floor, and his locket glowed softly atop it, hovering in a circle of colorless flames that burned nothing.  There was a simple circle of salt around the fire and beyond that, Mystery paced the floor in what seemed to be growing frustration. His tails lashed the air and he growled softly, teeth snapping every now and again.

Mystery padded up to the very edge of the salt circle and leaned in, brows furrowed as he peered anxiously at the locket. “It should be working. Why isn’t it working?” His voice pitched up in a worried whine.

“Mystery!” Vivi’s voice was the roar of a general in full command, echoing in from both the deadbeat relay and Lewis’s own ears. It shook dust from the rafters of the old church.

Mystery whirled away from the heart, eyes pinning rapidly and ears up.

“You get your fuzzy flea-flipping furry foundation out here before we have to come in after it!” Vivi challenged.

Mystery’s ears flattened to his neck. “We—?” He barely breathed the word. He rushed to peer out one of the broken windows, claws clattering noisily on the stone. “Oh, Vivi,  _no—!”_

A snarl ripped out of Mystery’s throat and he flung himself at the heavy and still solid oak doors, bulling through them in a rush that gave disregard to any damage they might do to him as they shattered from the force of the blow.

Through his deadbeat’s eyes and the ragged splinters of the doors, Lewis could clearly see Vivi and Arthur standing shoulder to shoulder a few feet from the rusted iron gate of the tiny cemetery, backlight by the lowering sun that was turning the clouds to vivid orange and red. Vivi looked magnificent in her justified fury, the image of a warrior-queen, expecting everyone and every thing to bow to her whims.

Beside her Arthur was shrunken in on himself, shoulders hunched defensively and his wings furled as tightly as the bandages would allow. But he still stood firm, never giving an inch, and his gold eyes nearly steady on Mystery’s baffled face.

Mystery surged forward, stopping a few feet away. His hackles were up and he growled long and low in his throat. His eyes glowed in fury, claws tearing at the dirt beneath his feet and tails lashing in the air like a multitude of irritated cats. “Vivi, you fool! Get away from that thing!”

Vivi planted her hands on her hips and favored Mystery with one of her very best ‘you are an idiot’ glares. “Mystery, you need to pull your stupid skull out of your seven supernatural sphincters. He is not a thing; he is Artie, our dearest friend!” Her fists clenched, Vivi took a deep breath. “Please, ‘Stree…” Her hands loosened and she held them out pleadingly to him. “You’re not thinking right. You know that… you have to know that!”

Mystery shook his shaggy head violently.  “No, Vivi— you can’t trust anything he says.”

Lewis’s deadbeat chirped and drew his attention back to the job at hand. As much as he wanted to be out there protecting Vivi and Arthur, he needed his locket back to do that best.

Lewis passed through the wall easily enough, though he could sense a sort of low-level shiver across his senses from the colorless flames surrounding his anchor. Surprisingly, there seemed to be no other wards… probably a good indicator of Mystery’s state of mind.

Cautiously, he crossed the floor, and stopped just short of the line of salt. They had used salt in investigations before, as it did seem to give some ghosts pause, but he had never had an issue with it in the time since his— death. Warily, he reached out, expecting a shock or something unpleasant, but felt nothing. His fingertip touched the grainy surface of the line of salt and made an impression. A small laugh bubbled up and he broke the circle by brushing some of the salt away easily. Some cook he’d be if he couldn’t even handle a little salt!

The translucent fire around the locket was another matter altogether. One careful prod earned him a nasty shock that made him feel like he’d stuck his whole body in an electrical outlet. Yelping, he drew his hand back and stumbled backwards, too stunned to hover.

His little deadbeat whirled around his shoulders, cooing worriedly as he examined his fingers for damage. He could see nothing, but the memory of that shock made his fingers shake.

Wavering, Lewis straightened up and faced the altar and the fire that kept him from his heart. He had to get it. Nothing else mattered but reaching it so he could help Arthur and Vivi.

He glanced up at his remaining deadbeat, the lonely wandering spirit that had attached itself to him, and sent it to watch out for Arthur and Vivi. If something went wrong, he didn’t want it harmed.

He took a moment to study the fire, barely visible flames that wavered the air around the locket like a heat shimmer. He’d heard of a purification fire before, but never seen one, not a real one anyway. It was an old spell, predating a lot of religions and civilizations. The basest idea was that it could burn away corruption, an idea that had been perverted in other hands until it became indistinguishable from the witch-fire used against those accused of witchcraft.

Vivi had said Mystery didn’t want to hurt him, but that hadn’t felt like something that would do him no harm.. It had been the closest thing to real pain aside from the theft of his locket that he’d felt since the cave. Maybe it wouldn’t harm his anchor, but it seemed it could do him some real damage.

And unfortunately, the only way to get to what he needed, was through it, and he had a feeling no water would put this fire out.

He heard a snarl from outside and knew time was running short.

With a silent thought at his deadbeat to look after the others should the worst happen, he stepped forward and thrust his left arm into the shimmer of fire. For a second, he could see the flames crawling up his arm, now flickering with hints of ebon and scarlet. Then…

Lewis  ** _screamed._**


	10. Quiet; For Just a Moment

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry this chapter took so long, but as those who saw my post on Tumblr know, I am now outside of all the shared headcanons and flying blind. I'm making this up as I go, and to be brutally honest, I'm terrified of screwing things up and making everyone who headcanoned things for this mad.

The sudden, agonized scream shattered the silence and the stalemate between Vivi and Mystery, but in an unexpected way.

“Lewis!” Arthur, galvanized into utterly forgetting his terror of Mystery, leapt forward, wings folded tight and moving with fluidity like he hadn’t since before the cave. He dodged Mystery’s lashing paw, oblivious to the fact that the paw rebounded off of air a good distance away from his body. All he could focus on was getting to Lewis.

Mystery roared, a sound of thwarted rage, and doubled back to leap in front of him again. His eyes behind his glasses were white-rimmed and more than half mad. **_“You shall not pass, demon!"_**   he bellowed, blue-white foxfire curling around his jaws.

Arthur dug in his claws and darted left, even his atavistic fear of Mystery barely registering over the need to reach Lewis, who was still screaming, an unrelenting shriek of agony. He had to help him!

“Mystery!” Vivi’s voice was uncharacteristically shrill. “Listen to what you’re doing! You’re hurting someone! This isn’t right!”

Mystery sprang to intercept Arthur again, claws digging furrows in the dirt. **_“You don't understand, Vivi!"_** he raged, trying to keep Arthur from darting past him.

Vivi leapt into the fray, jumping between Mystery and Arthur, arms spread. “No, I don’t! Mystery, look at what you’re doing!” There were tears on her cheeks. “I’m scared, Mystery, and right now, it’s you I’m scared of! You’re not the Mystery I know!”

Mystery’s head shot up, ears flicking forward in shock and eyes dilating.”Vivi—?” Then he shook his head. “No. You’ll forgive me when you understand.” One of his tails darted forward, to coil around Vivi and push her out of the way— at least that was the intention. The tail stopped short before it could reach her and could get no closer.

Mystery rocked back on his haunches like he’d been punched, pupils shrinking to pinpoints. All his tails writhed forward, stretching to try and grasp her. None of them came close, stopped in thin air and unable to get any nearer.

Horror filled his vulpine features. **_"What have you_ _DONE?!"_ ** His howl was heartbreaking in its raw terror. Unthinkingly, he darted for her, until he hit the invisible barrier with a strangled  _“Kii-yiiiii—”_  and went down on his rump, glasses knocked askew and eyes wild with unreasoning fear. He scrambled to his feet and lunged for Vivi again, slamming against the air with an audible thud. He rocked back and then strained forward, like he could overcome whatever was keeping him away from her with sheer force of will. It didn’t work and he circled her frantically, unable to come any closer to her. Arthur barely had the time to dodge out of his way.

Mystery reared back in his hind legs and threw his full weight into a headbutt against the force holding him away from his human. It stunned him for a second, and he staggered back, shaking his head.

Arthur took the opportunity to dash past him, desperate to reach the church and Lewis…

At least until he heard Mystery make an agonized bellow and then another thud. Hesitating, Arthur turned to look back.

Mystery was repeatedly headbutting the too solid air between him and Vivi, grunting with each impact. Vivi was backing away, her pale face streaked with tears, until she backed into the rusted iron gate and could go no further. “Mystery, stop,  _please!”_  she begged.

Mystery clawed at the air and rammed his head into it again. Arthur could see a bright trickle of  blood on his white fur, streaking from his nostrils. Vivi had said the ward wouldn’t hurt him but he hadn’t thought he would hurt himself on it! Mystery was going to kill himself at this rate!

Casting a longing glance at the church where Lewis had to be suffering, Arthur made the hardest decision he’d ever made. Hands shaking with terror, he tugged the leather thong up and over his head. It caught on one of his horns and he yanked until it broke, the little ward dropping from his fingers to the ground. Swallowing harshly, he leapt onto Mystery’s back, his weight making Mystery’s legs buckle with a surprised grunt. He knew it wouldn’t last long, Mystery was huge and could easily recover, but he had to make him stop harming himself.

“Vivi, gimme a hand here!” He shouted as Mystery started to buck beneath him, trying to get his feet back under him. Mystery was snarling, spittle flying from his jaws and all Arthur could think about was the half-lucid memory of Mystery lunging for him up on that cliff, but he only clung tighter, shaking hard.

Something bright blue cut across his vision and a shirtless Vivi flung herself onto Mystery’s head, bearing it to the ground. Her sweater was stretched over Mystery’s face and she used the arms to tie it down over his eyes. She crouched on his neck, wearing only her bra and skirt, and used a loop of her scarf to clamp Mystery’s jaws shut. Her face was still stained with tears but fiercely determined, and she leaned all her weight onto Mystery’s head to keep it pinned. Mystery flailed under their weight until Vivi lunged her head down and clamped her teeth hard on the base of his ear, the hand not holding the scarf digging fingers hard into the scruff of his neck.

Mystery froze with a muffled yip, every muscle locked up, and his tails standing straight out in shock.

Arthur looked up into Vivi’s face, set in a grimace. Without moving more than her eyes, she glanced down at the rest of her scarf trailing on the ground and then at Mystery’s feet.

Arthur took the hint and grabbed the long scarf, practically mummifying Mystery’s legs in the material and yanking a hard knot in it. It wouldn’t hold Mystery for long, not as strong as he was, but he hoped Vivi knew what she was doing. Mystery was starting to come out of his state of paralyzed shock, his tails starting to thrash along the ground.

Vivi released her hold on Mystery’s ear and slid sideways off of Mystery’s neck, arms wrapped around his head and pulling it close to her chest. She kept one leg looped over his neck and pinned that as well, even as the rest of his body began to thrash against the restraints. Without a word, she jerked her head toward the church, keeping Mystery’s blindfolded head held tight against her chest. She began talking quietly in japanese, her tone low and soothing.

Arthur scrambled awkwardly to his feet and wavered for a moment, undecided. Lewis needed him, but Vivi…

Something thumped against his foot and he looked down to see Vivi had kicked a ward at him. Not his, because the thong wasn’t snapped, so it had to be her own. She had to have taken it off to help subdue the more than half-mad Mystery. She glared at it and then up at him pointedly, but never stopped talking softly to the creature she held in a modified headlock.

Arthur’s wings drooped, but he did as directed, snatching up the ward and with one last worried look— he turned away and ran for the church, where the screams at last had tapered into silence, trying not to trip over his own feet. He was afraid of what he might find, but he would do anything he could to protect Lewis. Lewis had looked after him all the time since the cave, now it was his turn to return the favor. He scrambled for the shattered remnants of the door, hoping against hope he wasn’t too late.

******

For an agonized eternity,  _everything_  was pain. It wasn’t the familiar heat of a burn, or the agony of his own death, or even the sundering, tearing sensation of his locket being stolen; but some unholy combination of all of those, coupled with what felt like his mind being ripped to shreds. Lewis struggled against the flood of agony, but it swept him away in its unstoppable tide. It felt like he was coming apart at the seams and some distant, still-sane part of his mind wondered if this is what it felt like for a ghost to die.

It felt like bits of him were being flayed away, leaving him raw and bleeding; a torment of millions of tiny wounds bleeding his essence away. He was being torn asunder, scorched red and raw. He tried to hold on to anything, his love for Vivi and Arthur and Mama and Papa, his anger at his own death, even just the color of the sky, but they were all being ripped away and whirled into the maelstrom that was his entire existence now.

— And then, like the hurricane, there was a moment of utter silence, the eye of the storm holding the tiniest seed of what he had been in a formless limbo. There was nothing left to hold onto, so he did not try, only existing for a timeless moment, without thought or feeling, without pain or love, just being.

Then slowly, like the gentle plinking of raindrops on a utterly still pond, small things came trickling back. A name, one given by loving hearts to a nameless, lost child. The color of someone’s eyes, a clear, guileless blue, that darkened like stormclouds when they were angry. A shy half-smile, nervous and fleeting, but still speaking of an open, caring heart and humor in everything. Three hands, all of different sizes, but tiny compared to his own, reaching out for him with love and utter trust. A soft, puppyish bark and laughter that went from high yips to the chuckle of someone much older. Two people, whose names he could not find, but whose faces he would never forget. Another face, gruff and no-nonsense, but just as caring in their own slightly unpolished way.

Like the opening of a floodgate, more came pouring back,  _names, and places, love, and laughter, memories made soft by the passing of time, joy and wonder. There was sorrow too, to temper those joys into something worth holding onto; names and faces of those who had touched his life and left it, those who had come into his heart and stayed, a veritable swarm of things and feelings that made him who he was._

He remembered everything, even to his own death in the cave at the hands of the being that had taken over Arthur, but the things that came with those memories, the burning rage at what he’d thought was betrayal by his best friend, the sheer anguish and pain, the numbing terror of knowing Vivi had seen what had happened to him, were all faded, at a distance, like something from an old story once told to him. He still remembered what it was to die, still remembered everything with merciless clarity, but the bitter, ruinously poisonous emotional overtones were gone, blown away like so much ash.

The hate, the helpless fury at his own death and Arthur’s unwanted and agonizing transformation, the bitter thought that all that he  _was_ — was rage given form; only a shade of what he had been— those were not there any longer. He could pull up those things and look at them in the cold light of day, but they were not his be-all and end-all of existence.

In a blinding moment of clarity, he understood. The fire Mystery had called up had not harmed his locket because it could not; the anchor was the best of him, his love for Vivi, Arthur and family. But he had been reborn in the moment of his death; at the thought of the perceived betrayal, as a being of rage and hate. He only thought it had been snuffed out at the sight of Arthur’s body, but it had still been there, like a poison lurking beneath the surface.

It had  _been_  a poison, a corruption… and as was its purpose, the purifying flame had found that taint and burned it ruthlessly out. It had hurt because coming back the way he had, so very much of his essence, his soul, had been trapped in that corruption, those toxic feelings that eventually would have stripped away all that was Lewis, leaving behind a spirit that knew only how to hate. Not even having an anchor would have saved him from that fate, not if he had remained as he was.

But because of his friends, he had retained what he was, the humanity, and with the searing flames of the purifying fire, he was free and knew, even without anyone to tell him, that if he chose, he could leave the world of the living and go on to what awaited him. As he had been, he would  _never_  have had that option.

And that’s what it was, a  _choice._  He could move on— or he could stay— and become what he had tried to be for Arthur, a guardian, a protector. And really, there wasn’t  _any_  choice at all.

With that thought, the church came back into focus around him and he realized he was still standing next to the altar, his locket resting in the palm of his hand. The flames still flickered around him, but they no longer hurt, just a warm tingle across his senses.

Right about then, Arthur stumbled through the ruined door, looking a little worse for the wear. His eyes were frantic as he scanned the interior of the church, lit only by the flames around Lewis now, because the light outside was fading into twilight.

 _ **“Lewis?!”**_ Arthur called, his thin face full of fear. “Big guy, c’mon, you  _have_ to be okay… I can’t be too late, not after _everything!”_  He was looking directly at the flames, and for a moment, his words made no sense, until Lewis realized he was looking right through him…

Lewis looked down at his hand, realizing it was as translucent as the flames flickering around it. Oh… oops.

He concentrated on becoming visible, and the flames went out, leaving them in near-dark until Lewis called up several of his little will o’wisp lights.

“Lewis!” Arthur exclaimed delightedly, and then made a strangled sound and went a sort of muddy green, his version of a blush, covering his eyes with one hand.

“Arthur!” Lewis floated toward his friend, so glad he was alright. A little roughed up, but no real damage. Vivi’s charm must have worked.

Arthur flailed at him with his wings.  _“Pants!_ They are a  **thing!”**  He backed up a step with a strangled squawk. “A thing you seem to have  _lost_ between when you left and now!” His voice scaled up, and he flapped the hand not covering his eyes wildly in Lewis’ direction. “How does a ghost even lose his pants, Dude?!”

Startled, Lewis looked down at a very definitely bare chest and arms… and lower. He made a mortified squeak and tried to cover himself with his hands.

Arthur turned his back, tail switching like a cat’s, the tuft of fur at the end standing out like a bottlebrush. “What is it with everybody taking their damn clothes off today? Is it like something in the air?”

Lewis could feel the blush creeping down his very bare shoulders and chest. Utterly abashed, Lewis tried desperately to figure out how to put his clothes back on… at least until something else Arthur had said got through his distraction. “E-everybody?”

Arthur’s tail lashed so hard it sent up a plume of dust. The murky blush was spreading over his shoulders too, and he scraped at the stone floor with his toe-talons.

“Arthur?”

Arthur deliberately kept his back turned to Lewis. “Um— yeah, kinda. Mystery went a little cuckoo and Vivi sorta took off her sweater to blindfold him.”

“Is she alright?” Lewis knew her wards were effective, but he still couldn’t help but worry.

“She— yeah, she’s okay, big guy. Are you? I mean, we heard you screaming out there!”

Lewis made sure he had figured out clothing before answering. “You can turn around now, Artie, I’m decent.”

Arthur kept his hand in front of his face as he did, peering out from between his fingers before heaving a sigh of relief and lowering it. He didn’t stop blushing, though, as he examined Lewis like he might be able to see something wrong with him.

“I’m okay,” Lewis reassured. He really was. “It hurt me, yeah, but— I think it helped me too.”

“Helped you how?” Arthur ventured a step closer, reaching out to touch Lewis’s arm, as if he were reassuring himself that Lewis was still there, still real.

Lewis covered Arthur’s fingers with his own, squeezing lightly. “It’s a long story, but I promise I’ll tell you. First, though, we need to check on Vivi.”

“R-right,” Arthur stumbled over the word, fingers tightening on Lewis’s arm for a second. He averted his face and suddenly lunged forward to hug Lewis tightly. He was trembling.

“Artie?” Lewis wrapped his arms around the slighter figure. “Hey, what is it?”

Arthur had buried his face in Lewis’s chest, and didn’t look up. “Nothing. Just— just glad you’re st— okay.”

Lewis understood what Arthur had been thinking, and smoothed a hand over his hair. “I’m still here, Arthur. Not leaving you or Vivi,  _ever.”_

Arthur made a small sound and nodded against Lewis’s chest, but just continued to cling for a moment, wings curling around Lewis and tail winding around his calf.

In spite of his concern for Vivi, Lewis was just content to hold Arthur, let him feel he was there. His locket beat steadily where it was pressed between them and Arthur slowly relaxed, an inch at a time.

Finally, Arthur sniffed a little and pushed away slowly. “Sorry.’ His lashes were damp.

Lewis cupped his cheek. “Nothing to be sorry for. I’m only sorry it scared you.”

Arthur shrugged, a deliberately careless motion, but still leaned his head into Lewis’s touch. “Yeah, well, it can join the crowd. There’s a lot of things that scare me.”

“You shush,” Lewis scolded affectionately. “You’re brave when and where it counts.”

Arthur snorted, but didn’t try to argue, simply content to stand there in Lewis’s loose hold.

The moment was broken by a warbling trill, as the deadbeat Lewis had sent away before he dared the fire swooped back in and looped wildly around them, trilling excitedly.

Arthur glanced up at it, a small half-hearted smile curving his lips up. “Guess we better go see if Vivi needs any help with Mystery.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The title of this chapter comes from the song ["Hurricane"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lv1oR_k5f3w) from Hamilton: An American Musical.
> 
> Also, in the words of Ectoimp: "Pants are impure." lol


	11. Forgotten but not Forgiven

Vivi was sitting on the ground, cross-legged now, with Mystery’s blindfolded head in her lap, as Lewis and Arthur emerged from the church. She was stroking a gentle pattern over his ears with one hand, whispering softly in Japanese. Mystery’s muscles were lax and his ears pricked, focused entirely on Vivi.

Arthur pressed a finger to his lips and looked to Lewis, who nodded. He had gotten a quick update from his deadbeat, and knew just how much Mystery had freaked out earlier. It looked like whatever Vivi was saying was doing the trick, because Mystery was just listening quietly, his tails lying still on the ground.

Vivi glanced up at them, but didn’t move otherwise, all of her focus on soothing Mystery. Her cadence had changed and Lewis realized she was singing softly, barely above a whisper. He didn’t know enough to know the words, but whatever it was, it seemed to be working amazingly. Mystery was relaxing into a puddle of giant fox, only his ears still attentive on Vivi. She slowed her strokes to match the cadence of her song, and little by little, it was clear Mystery had slipped into almost a trance-like state, his breathing slow and even.

Vivi switched to english, still following the cadence of the song. “We’re okay, ‘Stree, we’re all good, I promise. We’re fine. You rest now, love, you can rest…”

Mystery stirred just a little, the now loose loop of scarf slipping off his muzzle.  _“All?_ ” His voice was soft, almost puppyish, and full of heartbreaking hope.

“Yes, I promise.” Vivi continued in the same soft song-like cadence. “Everyone is fine. You just rest, okay, ‘Stree? Go back to your little form now and I’ll carry you to bed with me, safe and warm.”

Mystery sighed and relaxed fully, all the tension gone from his body. He shrank back to his normal size, the binding scarf and sweater falling away from his much-shrunken limbs and his head still resting on Vivi’s thigh.

Vivi continued to stroke his head for another moment, until she seemed assured that he was truly asleep. Then, extremely careful not to wake him, she slid his head out of her lap and rose gracefully to her feet, brushing off the seat of her skirt, utterly unselfconscious about the fact that she was only wearing a bra from the waist up.

In the fading daylight, her eyes were utterly unfathomable, darkened to the hue of the sky before a storm. She strode the few steps between them, and looked up into Lewis’s face.

Lewis never even saw the right hook square to his locket coming.

His head rang and the next thing he knew he was on his ass, Vivi glowering down at him in a righteous fury.

Arthur yelped and made an abortive attempt to reach for him but one look at Vivi’s face and he backed off, nearly tripping over his wingtips.

Vivi stood over him, hands fisted on her hips and eyes as dark as the sea.  _“How fucking **dare** you?”_ Her voice was low and intense, full of barely reined-in rage.

“V-Vi-Vivi…” Stunned, Lewis could only stammer her name, one hand cupped instinctively over his hidden anchor. His head was still reeling.

Vivi loomed over him, fuming. Her shoulders were tense and her hands on her hips shook slightly. A high, hectic flush had started on her cheeks and spread down her throat and onto her bared chest as she seethed. “I don’t care what the hell you thought you were doing, those were my memories! You took them away, you took everything about you away!” She bared her teeth in a snarl and her eyes were red and wet. “You don’t get to decide that! My memories are my own, not something you can arbitrarily take!”

“Y-you remember me?” Lewis managed, unable to think. Had he taken her memories—?

Vivi wasn’t backing down, relentless as a storm. “I started remembering before Artie even reached the church. As soon as it started, I knew you— I remembered— remembered y-your last moments—” Vivi gagged, but sunk her teeth into her bottom lip hard enough to draw blood. A moment passed and she continued, her voice ragged, torn between anger and sorrow. “Y-you reached for me— I heard your voice, beg—begging for me to  _not_  remember seeing you like that.”

Her voice broke on something that might have been a sob, a bark of angry laughter, or anything in between. “B-But you were already— already g-gone.” Vivi hiccuped and wound up— socking him with an uppercut to the jaw this time.

It didn’t have the force of her first blow to his locket, but it still rocked Lewis back. “How _dare_ you?” Vivi seethed. “How dare you w-work a death magick on me, you— you inconsiderate, selfish— no-account, rock-headed,  _stupid— **buttmunch!”**_

The last explosion seemed to sap all her fury and she sagged in place. “Those were my memories, n-no matter how horrible, and you— you had no right!” The last was more plaintive than accusatory.

“Vi—” Arthur’s voice was hesitant. “Vivi— it’s not like he meant to— to do it,” he defended. “He— he just didn’t want—”

 _“What?_  Me to know he was dead? For me to remember him at  _all?”_

Lewis finally found his voice. “For you to not see me like that. I-I saw your face, Vivi, as I was—” A ghost of the horror he’d felt then tightened his throat. “The look in your eyes, I c-couldn’t bear it. I knew, even then, what you had seen and the thought of you having to carry that around with you—”

Vivi’s temper flared again. “You don’t get to decide  _that,_  buddy! I decide what I can and cannot bear and if you ever—  _ever_ do something like that again I will rip your head off and play football with it!” She glared down at him, hands on her hips and chest heaving with her angry breaths. “My mind is mine and nobody screws with it but me.”

Lewis opened his mouth to reply but found a finger in front of his mouth. “This is the part where you say  _‘Yes, Vivi’_ and promise me to never ever ever try anything like that again.”

Before he could say anything, Arthur said quietly, “Lewis, now would be the time to listen to her. You know Vivi and you know what the right answer is.” Then he flushed that muddy color again and waved his hands in the air a little frantically. “Um, like not that it’s my place to offer relationship advice or anything and… I’m just going to shut up and go over there where I can put my foot in my mouth in peace.”

Lewis reached out to snag one of Arthur’s flailing hands. “It is when you’re right.” He tugged Arthur closer, before he could physically backpedal to match his verbal attempt, and turning to face Vivi. “You’re right and I’m sorry. I can defend myself by saying that I wasn’t thinking of anything but my own desire to keep you safe and happy, but that doesn’t change the matter of me taking something that wasn’t mine to take. For that, I am sorry.”

Vivi only blinked down at him for a long moment. Lewis was afraid the apology wasn’t going to be enough.

Then fresh tears welled in her eyes and she crumpled to her knees and dragged Arthur down with her, grabbing hold of both of them in a hug so tight it was almost painful, “I missed you both  _so_ much. Even when I didn’t remember you, I knew there was something missing!” Her voice broke and she squeezed them tightly.

Arthur flinched at first, one of his wings flapping wildly in the air, but quickly relaxed into the desperate bearhug, carefully wrapping one arm around Vivi’s waist. Lewis slid his own arms around both of them, heart so full he didn’t think he could ever find the right words.

After a few seconds of stifled sniffling and a wet spot growing on Lewis’s shoulder, Vivi sat back and scrubbed her eyes with the back of one hand. “I found you. I thought I had lost everything. But you’re here and you’re real and I’m not dreaming this am I?”

Arthur let out a watery sort of chuckle. “Only if you’re regularly half dressed in a churchyard in your dreams. Then I’d think we were all dreaming.”

Vivi’s laugh was just as watery, but she slapped lightly at Arthur’s arm. “You dweeb.”

“Dork,” he retorted, but didn’t pull his arm from her waist. His other had slipped around Lewis’s back and he was holding onto Lewis’s shirt tightly. Lewis didn’t blame him. He didn’t want to let go of either of them right now… or for the foreseeable future.

Lewis dared to lean in and bury his nose in Vivi’s tangled hair, pleased to feel her leaning back into him. She lifted her hand to his chest. “You— you’re still here, even though—”

Lewis allowed his anchor out of hiding and let it rest in her palm, glowing softly in the fading light. “I’m not leaving. Not while there is something holding me here.” He closed her fingers around the locket. He felt Arthur start to withdraw and caught the hand that slipped from Vivi’s waist and placed it over Vivi’s and the locket. Arthur caught his bottom lip and worried it with a fang, but said nothing, only letting his hand rest over Vivi’s.

They sat there for a few moments like that, just holding and being held. Lewis had the brief thought to summon some of his little will o’wisp fires to light the area, because he really, really didn’t want to lose sight of either Arthur or Vivi right now and it was getting darker by the minute.

Mystery whuffled softly in his sleep and it broke the moment, making Arthur flinch instinctively. His tail lashed across the soil until it found Vivi’s calf, wrapping around her ankle like a limpet.

Vivi looked down at it in surprise, reaching out to smooth the fingers of her free hand along the soft tuft of hair at the end. “Wha—?”

Arthur yeeked and shivered, a murky blush climbing his cheeks again. “S-sorry,” he stammered, reaching out to grab the offending limb. “I-it’s got a mind of its own.”

Vivi batted Arthur’s hand away absently, her attention on the tail twisted around her lower calf, just above her ankle. She touched it again, fingers carding through the soft hair at the end and making Arthur shudder again. She looked up with a smile and brought her hand up to cup Arthur’s cheek. “No, it’s you. It’s just like you always cling to Lewis or I when something scared you.” Her eyes were still wet and she blinked away fresh tears. “If he had seen that, Mystery would know he’s being an idiot. No demon could fake that.”

Arthur’s eyes fluttered closed and he leaned his head into Vivi’s hand, lines of tension melting away.

Lewis’s heart warmed at the sight. He hadn’t had to convince Vivi that it was Arthur— but seeing her wholehearted acceptance and Arthur’s unconcealed relief was wondrous.

Mystery whuffled again and Vivi sighed even as Arthur tensed. “We should go back.”

She stroked Arthur’s hair before untangling herself from the three-way embrace. She poked Lewis in the nose and stood. “I remember a _lot_ of things, including the fact that I love you, but I am still mad at you, and you’d best remember that!” She dusted her hands on her skirt and gathered up her discarded scarf and sweater, not bothered at all by her partial nudity. She took the scarf and gently wrapped it over Mystery’s eyes. “So he doesn’t freak out if he starts to wake up… I don’t think he will, but best to be safe. You get to start your apologies by lugging his furry fundament to the van. Artie, you’re driving again.”

Arthur jittered a little, wings and tail twitching. “Um, Vi, are you sure that’s—”

Her sharply raised hand cut him off. “Zip it. I’m not losing track of anyone right now… or ever. We are all going back to where I found you and then I— I want to—” Her lips wobbled for a second before firming. “You are telling me  **everything.**  There— my head is a jumbled mess right now and I’m still trying to put everything back together in there.” She shot Lewis a glare again. “You had all the finesse of a drunk hippo in a glassworks, and I’m still not sure where some of the pieces fit, so you get to spill the beans, the milk or anything else spillable until I have the whole thing straight in my head.”

Vivi softened and bent to pick something up out of the dust, glimmering faintly in the light of Lewis’s conjured illumination. It was the ward Arthur had ripped off to subdue Mystery and she regarded it ruefully. “Besides, you still have one of these and— and, well, we saw how effective they are. He can’t hurt you, and I’m hoping Lewis and I can talk him down when he wakes up.”

Arthur worried at his bottom lip with the tip of one fang, but said nothing.

Lewis rose, hovering a little off the ground, and offered a hand to pull Arthur his feet. Arthur accepted it and let Lewis pull him up the way he often had, lifting him just enough off the ground to get his oversized feet in place, before lowering his weight onto them. It helped, since his balance wasn’t always the best anymore.

Vivi slipped her sweater back on, ruefully shoving the stretched sleeves up over her elbows while Lewis oh-so-carefully gathered up Mystery, making sure he could not struggle free if he did wake up and decide to go after Arthur again. In the enclosed environment of the van, even it he couldn’t touch Arthur he could cause him to crash the vehicle.

Vivi took the lead back downhill. Lewis sent lights ahead of her to light the uneven ground. Arthur lagged behind with Lewis, carefully holding branches out of the way until he had passed so that none of them hit the sleeping dog in his arms.

After one detour around a tangle of brush that Lewis couldn’t get through without waking the dog in his arms, Arthur spoke quietly, “You think he’s okay? I mean, he was— he was hurting himself trying to get to Vivi.”

Vivi glanced back at them, her expression softening. She dropped back to touch Arthur’s arm. “He has a hard head, in more ways than one. Lewis and I will get through to him.”

Arthur swallowed and nodded uncertainly.

Vivi suddenly wrapped him in a hug. Her voice was soft. “Even scared to death of him, you still worry.”

Arthur shrugged uncomfortably when she released him, rubbing the back of his neck. “I know— I think my head knows that he was trying to save me, but my fear doesn’t listen. It’s not too bad when— when he’s like this, y’know, small… because I can look at him and think of— before the cave, when he was just Mystery, and we played together and went for walks and stuff like that. When we were friends. When— when the  _scariest_  thing about him was how he smelled when he got wet, or— or drooled down my pants when he was begging for bits of dinner.” He shook his head. “But his other f-form, It’s gonna be a long time before I can not lock up in terror. Because I can still see him in my head, coming for me, all teeth and glowing eyes. It’s worse when he’s angry and g-growling.”

Vivi patted his cheek lightly. “We’ll help you. It will take time, but we’ll help you get through it, promise.”

Lewis would have added his own reassuring touch, but his arms were full of sleeping dog. His deadbeat caught his intention, and curled around Arthur’s neck with a cooing trill.

Arthur chuckled weakly and patted the deadbeat. He looked wistfully at Mystery. “You— you think we can  _ever_  be friends again? I know things can never be like they were before, but—”

Vivi reached up and flicked one of his horns, nails making a clacking sound against it. “Shoosh. Maybe it can’t be exactly like it was— but I’m putting everything I can into making it as close as it can be. And maybe with a little luck, even better.”

She shook her head and looked slantwise at Lewis. “Right now that means you help me fit all the pieces of my memories back into the jigsaw puzzle and fill in what I missed— and then trying to convince my floof with more tails than brains that Artie is still Artie.”

“Think he’ll ever believe that?” Arthur ran his claws along the curve of his horn where Vivi had tapped. From the look on his face it had been a weird sensation.

Vivi balled up her fists and took an exaggerated fighter’s stance. “I’ll make him believe it even if I have to cram it into his empty head with my fists!”

“Vivi, what have we said about this?” Lewis fell into an old chiding tone without even thinking about it.

“Not to go into a battle of wits unarmed?” she answered with patently fake innocence.

“Not everything can be solved with violence.”

She rolled her eyes.  _“ ‘But with words and wisdom and the wit to pick your battles,’ “_  She recited in a tone that said that she’d heard it far too many times. “Or a baseball bat upside the head!” she concluded cheerily before blinking, a strange expression crossing her face. “We— _ee’ve_  had this conversation before, haven’t we? It’s like I can almost remember saying that nearly verbatim.”

“Pretty much word for word,” Arthur put in, cocking a thumb at Lewis. “Sun Tzu over there likes to impart words of wisdom… that you promptly ignore like ninety-nine percent of the time.”

Lewis resisted the urge to stick out his tongue at Arthur. His deadbeat didn’t.

Vivi pursed her lips. “This is what we need to talk for. I know it’s something that happened, but details are foggy, like I can’t remember when it happened.”

Arthur reached out to catch her forearm. “We’ll figure it out, Viv. And that one I wouldn’t worry about too much because you’ve had this conversation at least three times that I can remember.” Arthur cracked a half-smile, the tip of one fang peeking through his lips. “Even now, your brain remembers the script.”

Vivi huffed and blew her bangs out of her eyes. “Yeah but I’m not going to be happy ‘til I get everything straight up here,” she pointed at her temple with one chipped blue nail.”So for that, I plan on having a really, really long talk over everything.”

She pointed down the hill, dark now outside the small sphere of light that surrounded them. But for that I want to be someplace less full of things to trip on and bugs to eat me, so let’s get to the van, shall we?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _A/N: I got to say it feels like we are coming to the end of this roller-coaster ride, I think there’s one more chapter in me to wrap it up and maybe the odd one-shot or something, being that this pretty much covers all of the varied headcanons that were tossed around when the lovely Ecto started sketching demon!Artie._


End file.
